Family Experiences and Parent Personality as Antecedents of Pubertal Timing in Girls and Boys

Pubertal timing may be influenced by typical variations in early family environmental events, but questions remain concerning the roles of specific parenting factors, developmental age of exposure to events, moderation by child temperament, and comparability of effects for girls and boys. This study...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of youth and adolescence Vol. 50; no. 5; pp. 1017 - 1033
Main Authors DiLalla, Lisabeth F., Pham, Holly T., Corley, Robin P., Wadsworth, Sally, Berenbaum, Sheri A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.05.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Adolescent
Age Factors
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Boys
Child
Child and School Psychology
Child, Preschool
Childrearing practices
Children
Children & youth
Clinical Psychology
Empirical Research
Family conflict
Family roles
Female
Girls
Health Psychology
History of Psychology
Home environment
Humans
Infant
Law and Psychology
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Parenting
Parents
Personality
Psychology
Puberty
Twins
Pubertal timing
Early adversity
Early family context
Parent personality
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Summary:Pubertal timing may be influenced by typical variations in early family environmental events, but questions remain concerning the roles of specific parenting factors, developmental age of exposure to events, moderation by child temperament, and comparability of effects for girls and boys. This study focused on these questions utilizing longitudinal data from 733 same-sex twins (45% girls) in the U.S.; family context was measured at ages 1–3, 4–5, and 6–7 years and pubertal status was assessed annually via self-report at ages 9–15, enabling estimates of pubertal timing. Home environment at ages 4–5 years predicted pubertal timing better than home environment at other ages for both girls and boys, but parent personality was more predictive than home experiences (e.g., divorce, parental harshness, family conflict). Thus, effects of family environment must be considered within the context of parent characteristics, encouraging caution in implicating early environmental experiences as direct influences on early pubertal timing.
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Authors’ Contributions
Data reported here are part of a longitudinal study. Aspects of the data on puberty and behavior problems have been reported elsewhere (Beltz et al., 2014; Beltz et al., 2019; Corley et al., 2015).
LD participated in the conception of the study, conducted statistical analyses, and helped draft the manuscript; HP participated in the conception of the study and helped edit the manuscript; RC participated in the conception of the study, participated in data distribution and analyses, and helped edit the manuscript; SW contributed to data acquisition and helped edit the manuscript; SB participated in the conception of the study, participated in its design, and helped draft and edit the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
ISSN:0047-2891
1573-6601
DOI:10.1007/s10964-021-01424-0