The Effect of Relative Pubertal Maturation and Perceived Popularity on Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiety in Adolescent Boys and Girls

Rebecca van Rijn*, Nikki C. Lee, Miriam Hollarek, Hester Sijtsma, Reubs J. Walsh, Mariët van Buuren, Barbara R. Braams, Lydia Krabbendam

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Research has shown that adolescents – particularly girls – who mature relatively early often experience more internalizing problems. This effect is thought to be partially driven by psychosocial mechanisms, but previous research based relative pubertal maturation on complete samples or population standards, instead of considering the adolescents’ direct peer environment. In the current study the level of adolescents’ pubertal development was assessed relative to their classmates in order to examine relative pubertal maturation. The effects of adolescents’ relative pubertal status, and their perceived popularity, on symptoms of social anxiety and depression in adolescents were studied. All analyses were also performed for absolute pubertal maturation. Participants were 397 young adolescents (M age = 13.06, SD = 0.36, 49.9% girls) at timepoint 1, and 307 (Mage = 14.08, SD = 0.36, 50.5% girls) at timepoint 2. A significant positive relationship was found between relative pubertal timing and symptoms of depression for girls but not boys. Social anxiety symptoms were not significantly related to relative pubertal timing in either sex. Relative pubertal maturation had no effect on change in or persistence of depressive and social anxiety symptoms one year later. The effects of the comparison with the immediate peer environment, did not seem to explain more variance in internalizing symptoms than the effects of early maturation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2384-2403
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume52
Issue number11
Early online date17 Aug 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The research reported in this manuscript was collected as part of the #SoConnect project, funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant to L.K. (Grant number 648082). The research was funded with the support of the Ammodo Science Award 2020 for Social Sciences. The funders had no role in this study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the results.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

Keywords

  • Adolescence
  • Depression
  • Early maturation
  • Perceived popularity
  • Pubertal timing
  • Social anxiety

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