It's about timing and change:
Pubertal transition effects on symptoms of major depression among African
American youths
Xiaojia Ge, Irene J. Kim, Gene
H. Brody, Rand D. Conger, Ronald L. Simons, Frederick X. Gibbons, Carolyn E.
Cutrona
(2003) Developmental
Psychology, 39(3), 430-439.
Effects of early physical
maturation and accelerated pubertal changes on symptoms of major depression
were examined in 639 African American children.
Three rival hypotheses, early timing, off-time, and stressful change,
were tested using 2 waves of data (mean ages = 11 and 13 years). The pubertal effect operates differently
according to children's gender and age.
For girls, early maturation was consistently associated with elevated
levels of depressive symptoms. For boys,
early maturers manifested elevated levels of depression only at age 11, but
these symptoms subsided by age 13. Boys
who experienced accelerated pubertal growth over time displayed elevated
symptom levels. Results support the
early timing hypothesis for girls and the stressful change hypothesis for
boys. Time at assessment is critical
when examining boys' pubertal transition.