ARTICLES
Links Between Pubertal Timing and Neighborhood Contexts: Implications for Girls’ Violent Behavior

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ABSTRACT

Objective:

To investigate links between girls’ violent behavior, pubertal timing, and neighborhood characteristics.

Method:

A total of 501 Hispanic, black, and white adolescent girls and their parents were interviewed twice over a 3-year period (1995–1998). Violent behavior was assessed using the Self-Report of Offending Scale and pubertal timing was measured via menarche. This probability sample was drawn from Chicago. To characterize neighborhoods, neighborhood clusters were created. U.S. Census data were mapped onto each neighborhood cluster to represent levels of concentrated disadvantage, immigrant concentration, and residential mobility. The response rate was approximately 70%.

Results:

More than 25% of girls engaged in violent behavior at the second interview. Controlling for demographic indicators, previous violence, and other psychological factors, no differences were found in violent behavior as a function of menarcheal timing or neighborhood characteristics. Instead, results revealed that early maturers engaged in violent behavior only if they lived in neighborhoods characterized by high concentrated disadvantage. Early maturers in neighborhoods characterized by high concentrated disadvantaged engaged in three times the number of violent acts as early maturers in less disadvantaged neighborhoods. Depressive symptoms and previous violent behavior were also associated with girls’ subsequent violent behavior.

Conclusions:

Results indicated that girls who experience a double vulnerability—early maturation and neighborhoods of disadvantage—are susceptible to engaging in violent behavior. This suggests the need for clinical evaluation to examine the implications of pubertal timing and the context of girls’ behavior.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample was drawn from neighborhoods that were part of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). To examine neighborhoods, Chicago's 865 census tracts were combined to create 343 neighborhood clusters (NCs). NCs, averaging approximately 8,000 people each, were composed of census tracts that are geographically adjacent to and socially similar to each other (see Sampson et al., 1997). After NCs were identified, we used a two-stage sampling procedure to select a random

Descriptive Analyses

At wave 1, more than 35% of adolescents lived in single-parent homes (Table 1). Forty percent of PCs did not complete high school, primarily reflecting the high percentage of the Hispanic participants who emigrated from Mexico, where the school structure differs from that in the United States.

Approximately one third (n = 179) of girls engaged in at least one act of violence during the 12 months preceding wave 1. At wave 2, the number of girls who engaged in violent behavior dropped to roughly

DISCUSSION

This study brings a developmental/ecological approach to examining the effects of pubertal timing on violence across neighborhoods. Results showed that biological changes do not exist in isolation from the social context; girls who experienced two stresses (i.e., early maturation in neighborhoods of disadvantage) were at greatest risk of acting violently. The contextual effect of neighborhood disadvantage persisted even when controlling for other neighborhood and family characteristics. This

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    This work was supported by NIMH grant R03MH62542-02 and grants from NIJ, MacArthur Foundation, NICHD, and NIMH.

    Disclosure: Dr. Brennan has a for-profit relationship with the Goodman Research Group, Inc., Cambridge, MA, and with WFD Consulting, Watertown, MA. The other authors have no financial relationships to disclose.

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