Chapter Two - The Importance of Puberty for Adolescent Development: Conceptualization and Measurement

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Abstract

How and why are teenagers different from children and adults? A key question concerns the ways in which pubertal development shapes psychological changes in adolescence directly through changes to the brain and indirectly through the social environment.

Empirical work linking pubertal development to adolescent psychological function draws from several different perspectives, often with varying approaches and a focus on different outcomes and mechanisms. The main themes concern effects of atypical pubertal timing on behavior problems during adolescence, effects of pubertal status (and associated hormones) on normative changes in behaviors that can facilitate or hinder development (especially risk-taking, social reorientation, and stress responsivity), and the role of puberty in triggering psychopathology in vulnerable individuals. There is also interest in understanding the ways in which changes in the brain reflect pubertal processes and underlie psychological development in adolescence.

In this chapter, we consider the ways that puberty might affect adolescent psychological development, and why this is of importance to developmentalists. We describe the processes of pubertal development; summarize what is known about pubertal influences on adolescent development; consider the assumptions that underlie most work and the methodological issues that affect the interpretation of results; and propose research directions to help understand paths from puberty to behavior. Throughout, we emphasize the importance of pubertal change in all aspects of psychological development, and the ways in which puberty represents an opportunity to study the interplay of biological and social influences.

Section snippets

Puberty and Adolescent Development

How and why are teenagers different from children and adults? Developmentalists have long been interested in psychological changes that take place in adolescence. These include normative changes associated with the attainment of reproductive maturity (e.g., family, peer, and romantic relationships, adult cognition), variations in those normative processes (e.g., risk-taking), and the development of problems that originate in adolescence or increase in incidence or severity at this time (e.g.,

Defining and Measuring Puberty

In order to understand how puberty might affect psychological development, it is important to be clear about the pubertal processes themselves and the aspects of those processes that are thought to matter. We discuss the changes of puberty and then how they have been considered in relation to psychological development.

Evidence for Pubertal Influences on Adolescent Development

In this section, we briefly summarize work on pubertal influences on adolescent development, highlighting the themes, findings, and questions that await further research. This is not an exhaustive review, but rather an illustration of the type of work being done, with representative findings and challenges.

Research on links between puberty and adolescent psychological development has a long history (for reviews, see Dorn et al., 2006, Susman and Dorn, 2009), but until recently it has not been a

Assumptions, Strengths, and Limitations of Work on Puberty–Behavior Links

In this section, we consider the assumptions that underlie most of the research literature we just summarized, articulate the different ways in which puberty is thought to affect behavior, and consider how previous research has been successful (or not) in testing links between puberty and behavior. In doing so, we also consider methodological improvements that could enhance our ability to study the paths from puberty to behavior.

Conclusions and Future Directions

It is an exciting time to study pubertal influences on psychological development. The topic is of interest to scientists, funding agencies, policy makers, and the general public. Methodological and conceptual advances have created new opportunities, along with challenges that should generate new research and new discoveries. In this section, we summarize what is known and what remains to be understood, and provide suggestions for future work.

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