Early and Late Maturation

 Early and Late Maturation:

When adolescents mature earlier or later than their peers, they often perceive themselves differently and their maturational timing is linked to their socioemotional development and whether they develop problems.

 In the Berkeley Longitudinal Study, early-maturing boys perceived themselves more positively and had more successful peer relations than did latematuring boys.

 The findings for early-maturing girls were similar but not as strong as for boys.

When the late-maturing boys were in their thirties, they had developed a more positive identity than the earlymaturing boys had.

Perhaps the late-maturing boys had more time to explore life’s options, the early-maturing boys continued to focus on their physical status instead of paying attention to career development and achievement.

 The early maturation increases girls’ vulnerability to a number of problems.

Early-maturing girls are more likely to smoke, drink, be depressed,  have an eating disorder, struggle for earlier independence from their parents, and have older friends; and their bodies are likely to elicit responses from males that lead to earlier dating and earlier sexual experiences.

 Recent study revealed that early-maturing girls were more likely to try cigarettes and alcohol without their parents’ knowledge.

--are less likely to graduate from high school and tend to cohabit and marry earlier.

--social and cognitive immaturity, combined with early physical development, early-maturing girls are easily lured into problem behaviors, not recognizing the possible long-term effects of these on their development.