Posted on 06/11/2016 3:45:18 PM PDT by heartwood
“What we found was the girls who had earlier breast development had a higher risk of depressive symptoms, or more depressive symptoms,” said Dr. C. Mary Schooling, an epidemiologist who is a professor at the City University of New York School of Public Health, and was the senior author on the study. “We didn’t see the same thing for boys.”
...Earlier onset of breast development in girls was associated with a higher risk of depression in early adolescence even after controlling for many other factors, including socioeconomic status, weight or parents’ marital status...
The biological transition of puberty, of course, occurs in a social and cultural context. One very important effect of developing early, Dr. Mendle said, is that it changes the way that people treat you, from your peers to the adults in your life to strangers. “When kids navigate puberty they start to look different,” she said. “It can be hard for them to maintain friendships with kids who haven’t developed, and we also know that early maturing girls are more likely to be harassed and victimized by other kids in their grade.”
(Excerpt) Read more at well.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Posted because of this thread. Our commenters' debate: does being groped/catcalled/assaulted short of rape ruin a girl's life, or do girls need to be tough, and expect to be groped, and deal with it? Or does it simply make one miserable for a while, without being life-ruining?
Annette never seemed depressed to me! And she made me happy!
It’s the hormones in the milk and the kardasian girls
Trying to wall off sexuality from participation in the institution of family has given girls this kind of albatross to deal with. Ample chests — check. The possibility of babies to suckle? Not so much.
I am not quite sure what is meant as an analogous measure for the boys/men. Hairy chests? The single dynamic is easier for men than for women. (I’m weird. My back got far hairier than my chest did, and it’s been that way all my life.)
I knew a girl when I was a kid that was basically fully developed (and really hot) by the time she was 12. I really felt sorry for her back then because she was simply not equipped to cope with an adult body. I feel even more sorry for her now.
Traci Lords used being early developed to her advantage and got away with it.
>>“We didn’t see the same thing for boys.”
Well duh. That’s because boys (and men) are what they are and we are generally comfortable with that...as long as someone doesn’t come along to tell them that they shouldn’t be what they are.
Poor girls. There’s already far more for them to deal with than I remember the girls I knew growing up had to.
I question that conclusion. I would think that boys that developed breast at a young age would also be depressed.
>>It isn’t just the other kids. It’s the grown men.
Probably because society tells them that as soon as they start to mature physically, they need to get into the skin-tight clothes, push-up bras, booty shorts, and makeup. Then, they could be 12, or they could be 32. If some poor guy thinks they’re 20, they don’t correct him because they want the attention from an “older guy” to make their friends jealous.
And I will be flamed for saying this from all the single moms out there because its important for them for their daughters to discover their sexuality, while at the same time they do everything they can to emasculate their sons because he reminds them of their ex (or baby daddy).
Oh, no. I was a late developer, but I went to extremes when I did. I dressed modestly, and too many men still acted as if I had grown my breasts on purpose to get attention.
Revealing clothes don’t help matters, but clothes are not the main problem. The problem is the men - only a few in some groups, and a great many in others.
Unfortunately, women do seem to have an innate disdain for male sexuality: particularly when it conflicts with their own. They would not attend to the idea men have something to be sorry/ashamed of were it not so.
The article states that scrotum and testes development is the analogous measure for males.
Case in point.
How did you come by that impression?
We didn’t see the same thing for boys
Well, there.
The focus of the article is not on hidden indicators of sexual development, but on the social indicators that are visible despite clothing.
A girl with breasts becomes a sexual object to many boys and men. The attraction they show to her can be extremely disrespectful. She might become an object of derision to girls if she precedes them in development.
A boy who is tall, broad-chested and deep-voiced gains status among boys. He is a more formidable athlete and competitor. Girls may admire him and be attracted to him, but they generally don’t isolate his parts and turn him into a piece of meat.
>>The problem is the men - only a few in some groups, and a great many in others.
That’s what I’m talking about.
I have read that early puberty is more likely from molestation, which would then further that likelihood.
OK. But anyhow, normally these don’t become social factors.
Can it bring about biological change, or simply a precocious mindedness?
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