Original ArticlesPubertal maturation in girls and the relationship to anthropometric changes: Pathways through puberty☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Subject Selection
The participants were from 3 clinical sites of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (NGHS). Briefly, the NGHS is a longitudinal study that examined the impact of growth and development on cardiovascular risk factors among black and white adolescent females. Participants were a socioeconomically diverse group of females who were 9 and 10 years of age at entry. They were recruited from public and parochial schools in metropolitan Cincinnati, Ohio; the Richmond,
Results
There were 358 black participants who had asynchronous maturation. Many black participants recruited at age 10 (as well as 9-year-old recruits) were beyond early pubertal maturation at intake, eliminating all early and many on-time maturers from analysis. To evaluate a potential bias of analyzing only 10-year-old black participants at entry with a specified pubertal pathway, females who were <10 years of age were compared with those who were 10 years at intake. The 3-way interaction between
Discussion
This study analyzed longitudinal data from 443 of 1166 white females in a 10-year study in whom we observed asynchronous maturation in the initial manifestation of puberty, exhibiting either areolar and/or breast development (thelarche pathway) or pubic hair development (adrenarche pathway). We found that 67% of white participants entered pubertal maturation through the thelarche rather than the adrenarche pathway. These data are in agreement with those of Reynolds and Wines, who reported that
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Robert P. McMahon, PhD, and Eva Obarzanek, PhD, for careful review of the manuscript.
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2020, Social Science and MedicineCitation Excerpt :Adrenarche is marked by increased levels of dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS) (Reiter et al., 1977), the most abundant androgen in circulation, and entails the maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, also known as the stress axis. Occurring between the ages of 6 and 8 years, on average in both boys and girls, adrenarche corresponds with advances in brain development, learning and socialization, and cross-culturally begins the juvenile period when children are recognized as able to handle more social responsibilities, such as sibling care, attending school, etc. (Campbell, 2006a) Thelarche is the onset of breast development and typically occurs between the ages of 8–10 in girls (Biro et al., 2003). Menarche, when a girl has her first menstrual period, is the easiest stage to document and therefore the most widely used marker of pubertal maturation, but is usually one of the last changes in puberty, occurring up to 4 years after thelarche.
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Supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Grant R01 HL38170 and NHLBI Growth and Health, Cincinnati site, contract HC 55025.
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Reprint requests: Frank M. Biro, MD, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039. E-Mail: [email protected] .