Puberty: Getting more than you hoped

When I was growing up, all the girls read Are you There God? It's Me Margaret., by Judy Blume. Its main character, Margaret, looks forward to developing breasts and getting her first menstrual period. When these finally occur she feels triumphant! More recently, Hello Flo advertisements also portray puberty as something that girls desire: they are upset if menstruation doesn't start quickly enough. Of course, fiction writing and advertisements may not reflect the full story of girls' puberty as witnessed by these memes:



Keenan, Culbert, Grimm, Hipwell, and Stepp (2014) investigated the relationship between African-American and European-American girls' pubertal timing (what age things happen), pubertal tempo (how much time passes between stages of puberty; how long puberty lasts), and depression symptoms. Their sample was part of the longitudinal Pittsburgh Girls Study, so it was large (more than 2,000 girls of diverse backgrounds), data were collected at age 10 and then each year for up to a decade, and the participants were more likely to come from low-income homes.

Each year the girls completed a depression inventory; their caregivers (mostly mothers) completed the same depression inventory about their daughters. From this Keenan et al. could learn how many depression symptoms were common at each age and see how they related to the other variables of ethnicity and puberty. Overall, depression symptoms were highest at age 10 and declined at various rates after that. Even so, across the decade the girls reported that only one or two symptoms on average. The authors maintained that even "minor depression" like this can put individuals at risk for other problems.

The girls provided data on pubertal timing and tempo by matching themselves to standard pictures that portrayed different stages of breast and pubic hair development, and by indicating if they had gotten their first period. One of these scales was also completed by the caregivers in reference to their daughters' development.

The results replicated past research in that the earliest maturing girls (early pubertal timing for breast and pubic hair development) reported more depression symptoms at age 10 than later maturing girls (late pubertal timing). A new finding was that girls who were late to develop breasts (late pubertal timing) and also had a slow pubertal tempo (change progressed slowly) also reported more depression symptoms. There was no effect on depression related to the development of pubic hair and pubertal tempo.

Similar to past research, African-American girls reported slightly higher depression symptoms. For example, at age 10 African-American girls reported one extra depression symptom compared to European-American girls. Likewise, African-American girls demonstrated earlier pubertal timing: pubic hair development occurred almost nine months earlier and breast development began about eleven months earlier than what was reported by European-American girls. Keenan et al. added to the literature by suggesting a trend: African-American girls demonstrated a little slower pubertal tempo, meaning that they took just ever so slightly longer to pass through the stages of puberty compared to the European-American girls. This trend requires further investigation in future research.

New and most importantly, the relationship between depression, ethnicity, and pubertal timing was significant. The ethnic difference in depression symptoms at age 10 (their peak) was reduced up to 32% when pubertal timing was factored in. Pubertal tempo did not have a similar effect. Thus, a considerable portion of the ethnic difference in depression can be explained by African-American girls' earlier entry into puberty compared to European-American girls.

In explaining their findings Keenan et al. suggested that sex hormones might be to blame for at least some of the low level depression seen in preteen girls. Girls with an earlier pubertal timing have higher levels of sex hormones like estrogen compared to girls who have not yet begun pubertal development. This biological argument would, at least in part, explain African-American girls' slightly higher rates of depression.



On the other hand, the authors predicted that a slow pubertal tempo would also predict higher levels of depression because it would mean exposure to high levels of hormones for an extended period of time. In this study, only for girls with later breast development (which implies lower hormone levels) did slow pubertal tempo predict slightly higher depression symptoms. As well, slow pubertal tempo did not explain any of the differences in depression between African- and European-American girls. So hormones cannot be the only explanation for girls' depression symptoms during puberty.

One possibility is that girls receive feedback based on their development that makes them self-conscious. Increases in estrogen cause weight gain so an early maturing girl may feel overweight compared to other girls. Breast development, a sign of puberty that is visible to others, may be desired to attract dating partners - so later maturing girls (especially those with a slow tempo) might be embarrassed by smaller breasts (but not care about lacking pubic hair, a trait that is not socially visible). Conversely, early breast development may bring with it unwanted sexual attention and comments that are uncomfortable for a young girl to navigate. It is also possible that early development of breasts and early menarche may lead parents to treat girls differently: for example, fathers may be less affectionate with their daughters once puberty begins. Parents, fearing sexual experimentation, sexually transmitted infections, teen pregnancy, or sexual assault may also impose new limits on what an early maturing girl can wear, where she can go, and whom she can be with. These sorts of social factors could also explain some of the low level depression seen in preteen girls.

FURTHER READING:

The Keenan et al. (2014) article is available online and through your local college library.

Parents are not the only ones who may regulate girls bodies once puberty begins. Read an article in The Atlantic magazine by Li Zhou: "The Sexism of School Dress Codes."

Starting at puberty, girls and women are twice as likely as boys and men to suffer from depression. This also means that depression symptoms might be missed in males because we are not expecting them to be depressed. Counselor and writer, Michael Gurian, explains some possible symptoms to look for in boys:

What we fear is a mirror

Along with trick-or-treating and attending parties, some people celebrate Halloween by paying to get scared: they walk through the spooky scenes of a haunted house while actors jump from the shadows, scream, and taunt them.

Why do we like to get a little scared? The James-Lange theory of emotion would suggest that we experience our bodies' fear response, racing hearts and sweaty palms, but then mislabel that arousal as "fun" or "excitement." As well, haunted houses keep us in the present moment so we cannot worry about anything else at the same time. People who were stressed before going into a haunted house often report the highest amount of relaxation from the experience.

But do we all get scared by the same things? Muroff, Spencer, Ross, Williams, Neighbors, and Jackson (2014) wondered if White and African American men and women have different ideas of what causes fear. They used a cognitive interview technique by asking a convenience sample of almost 200 participants (ages 18-85) a single question, "What makes and object or a situation fearful?" (p. 156).

From their answers the researchers distilled five categories of what makes something scary:

External Locus of Control: feeling out of control; not knowing what is about to happen.

Harm/Danger: risk that something would hurt or threaten your health/life.

Phobias: an irrational, intense fear of something that provokes immediate anxiety and/or panic.

Past Experience: having had or knowing about someone else's past experience with something that was fear-inducing.

Self-Perception: your belief that you will find something scary or not be able to handle something.

Muroff et al. then reexamined the participants' responses to see how often all of the participants and participants from specific groups included these categories in their original explanations about what makes things scary. From these qualitative data, they found that (p. 157):

*The most common category for all participants was External Locus of Control: it was mentioned in 35% of all explanations. This was followed by Harm/Danger (29%) and Phobias (18%).

*White women were 1.5 times more likely than African-American women to include External Locus of Control as part of their answers.

*External Locus of Control appeared most in the explanations given by White women and the least in explanations given by White men. 

*Older participants' responses were more likely to include External Locus of Control.

*White men were 3.5 times more likely than African-American men to include Past Experience in their responses.

*Men were more likely than women to include references of Self-Perception.

*Phobia was most common in the answers given by participants who had not completed high school.

This would suggest that these same individuals would react differently to various aspects of a haunted house. The majority, but especially White female and older participants, would be scared by unpredictable situations: dark passageways; rooms filled with disorienting lighting and mirrors; going around blind corners; not being able to find the way out of a room.

White male participants would be scared of things that remind them of bad situations that they, or people they know, have experienced. For example, an actor throwing a fake punch toward them, or a torture scene that includes an actor being kicked in the genitals or having a thumb hit by a hammer.

Males, in general, would also be afraid if they were led to believe that they could not handle a situation. This could be induced by playing recorded messages like, "You are helpless," "Others have come here but nobody leaves alive," or, "You can fight but you are too weak to escape," as they walk through the haunted house.

Finally, participants who had not completed high school might be particularly afraid if the horrific scenes included common phobia triggers. For example, spiders, needles, blood, tight spaces, or high heights.

Muroff et al. were not interested in how to build the scariest haunted house. Instead they were curious if people from different groups may have different interpretations of an assessment question that is commonly used to diagnosis phobias. Their results suggest that age, education level, sex, and race can influence how people conceptualize fear, and this may affect the accuracy of that phobia assessment.

The authors emphasized that the results likely reflect truly scary aspects of American culture. For example, women tend to have less financial power related to men; money allows you to better control your experiences. I would also add that women are more often cautioned to control their environments to prevent dangerous situations (e.g.; never walk alone; don't leave your drink unattended; walk with purpose and stay in well-lit areas). This may be particularly true for White women as the media more often portrays them as victims of violence - even though it is African American women who actually experience more violence. Perhaps this is why White women were more likely to endorse External Locus of Control as something that induces fear.

More clearly, Muroff et al. wrote, "Research on coping mechanisms for discriminated and stigmatized groups suggests that African American men and women may depend on various mechanisms for coping such as external locus of control and social learning" (p. 158). In this case external locus of control means that discrimination is explained as being random or a product of the situation, and thereby not caused by the person experiencing this unfair treatment. The authors explained that this beneficial coping mechanism would be less likely to be part of African Americans' explanations of fear.

Additionally they wrote, "Our findings also suggest that White respondents in this sample mention past experiences in their conceptualizations of fear more frequently than their African American counterparts. African Americans' experiences may be influenced more by unpredictable events including acts of racism and discrimination." Because of this, "African Americans may focus on the present and future in order to cope with adverse life experiences" (p. 158). When your past is full of fear it might not help you distinguish if a new situation is scary or not.

We can all exit a haunted house, but we can rarely step outside of our own experience of biological sex, race, and culture. The first step is to realize that we are all different: the same environment may be fun for some and scary for others.

Further Reading:

The Muroff et al. (2014) article can be accessed through your local college library.

Listen to National Public Radio's "Hidden Brain" podcast on the Science of Fear.

Read about Neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett who creates a yearly haunted house in her basement based on the neuroscience of fear. The proceeds of the event are donated to charity.

BONUS:

Watch when talk show host Ellen Degeneris sends her executive producer and "Modern Family" star, Eric Stonestreet, through a haunted house. These men are both White: does their behavior match the results of Muroff et al.?

Andy Goes to a Haunted House with Eric Stonestreet, Part 2 | EllenTV.com