Home Life Affects Puberty Onset
November 16th, 2007 Posted by: Dr. Cox
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Support from parents and a strong family life can lead to later onset of puberty, according to a new study. The research could help in developing effective early intervention and prevention strategies for girls.
Early puberty in girls can lead to a number of Men’s health problems including mood disorder, substance abuse, adolescent pregnancy and cancers of the reproductive system. This is why itâs important to identify factors that can delay puberty. Researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Wisconsin, Madison conducted a study to look at the role of family life and the development of girls.
For the study, 227 preschool children participated in the study. Study authors looked at the socioeconomic conditions, marital conflict, parental depression and supportive versus coercive parenting by interviewing the parents. The study followed the children through middle school testing the first hormonal changes of puberty. They also interviewed mothers and daughters asking them to select diagrams that were similar to the daughtersâ development.
Researchers report that children living in families with greater parental supportiveness, less marital conflict and less depression by the fathers experience puberty later in life. They also found children whose mothers started puberty later, whose families were better off, had supportive mothers and lower body mass index developed later than their peers.
Lead study author Bruce Ellis says, âThese results replicate and extend previous longitudinal research indicating that higher levels of positive investment and support in family relationships in preschool predict lower levels of pubertal maturation in daughters in seventh grade.â
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SOURCE: Child Development, 2007;78