Pubertal Transition Effects on Symptoms--论文代写范文

在最近的两项研究中，美国青少年出现消极应对青春期的过渡。问题依然存在,年轻人受这种转变的影响不同,使用两个波的纵向数据，这篇essay代写范文研究旨在评估几种不同的假设，关于青春期的过渡影响。

Abstract
  Effects of early physical maturation and accelerated pubertal changes on symptoms of major depression were examined in 639 African American children. Three rival hypotheses, early timing, off-time, and stressful change, were tested using 2 waves of data (mean ages   11 and 13 years). The pubertal effect operates differently according to children’s gender and age. For girls, early maturation was consistently associated with elevated levels of depressive symptoms. For boys, early maturers manifested elevated levels of depression only at age 11, but these symptoms subsided by age 13. Boys who experienced accelerated pubertal growth over time displayed elevated symptom levels. Results support the early timing hypothesis for girls and the stressful change hypothesis for boys. Time at assessment is critical when examining boys’ pubertal transition.

  An increasing number of studies have documented a significant relationship between the pubertal transition and both subclinical depressive symptoms and clinical depression among adolescents (Angold, Costello, & Worthman, 1998; Ge, Conger, & Elder, 1996, 2001a, 2001b; Graber, Lewinsohn, Seeley, & Brooks-Gunn, 1997; Petersen, Sarigiani, & Kennedy, 1991; Susman et al., 1985). Relatively little systematic information, however, is available about the influence of the pubertal transition on the development of depression among African American youngsters. 

  In two recent studies based on cross-sectional data collected at the first wave of the current project, we reported that, like their European American peers, African American adolescents appear to respond negatively to the pubertal transition (Ge, Brody, Conger, & Simons, in press; Ge, Brody, Conger, Simons, & Murry, 2002). Questions remain, however, as to which youngsters are most affected by this transition and whether its effects differ for African American boys and girls at different ages. Using two waves of longitudinal data collected from African American children when they were 11 and 13 years of age, respectively, the present study was designed to evaluate several alternative hypotheses about the pubertal transitional influences on African American boys and girls.

  Three rival hypotheses have been advanced to explain the theoretical link between the pubertal transition and the observed increase in adolescent emotional disturbance (Caspi & Moffitt, 1991; Petersen & Taylor, 1980). The early timing hypothesis predicts that adolescents who mature early should be affected most negatively (Peskin, 1973). This hypothesis originated from the stage termination proposition, which posits that the emotional difficulties that early-maturing adolescents experience stem from their differential preparation for pubertal change (Petersen & Taylor, 1980). 

  According to this line of reasoning, developmental change is sequential; chronologically ordered developmental tasks in one stage must be successfully completed before an individual moves on to the next developmental stage. Early maturation shortens the time available for children to acquire, assimilate, and strengthen adaptive and coping skills. This curtailed preparatory period may place early maturing adolescents at risk for adjustment difficulties as they confront too soon the new challenges that accompany adolescence. Early physical maturation is a significant risk factor for the development of depression, especially for girls (Ge et al., 1996, 2001a; Graber et al., 1997; Petersen et al., 1991). Most published studies to date, including a previous study from the current project (Ge et al., in press), have used cross-sectional designs to demonstrate the early timing effect, which precludes any inferences about a causal link between puberty and depression. 

  Because depressed individuals tend to have a history of depression, the researcher’s challenge is to demonstrate that the pubertal transition actually predicts subsequent depressive symptoms even after prior symptom levels have been statistically controlled. The current study met this challenge by using data collected across two waves, when the youths averaged 11 and 13 years of age, to examine the longitudinal significance of early physical maturation in the development of depressive symptoms. The off-time hypothesis predicts that both early- and latematuring adolescents will manifest higher levels of emotional disturbance than will their on-time age-mates. 

  This hypothesis has its origin in the deviance proposition, which maintains that departure from the typical scheduling of life events places early and later maturers in deviant categories, compared with their on-time peers. Because transitions that occur at the expected ages are socially predictable and culturally acceptable, adolescents who mature on time should be affected less negatively than either their early- or late-developing peers. From this perspective, those who begin puberty earlier or later than their age-mates are at higher risk for emotional problems. The off-time hypothesis has received varying degrees of empirical support. Alsaker (1992), for example, reported that both earlyand late-maturing boys showed elevated depressive symptoms compared with their on-time peers. 

  Using data from an epidemiological study conducted in Oregon, Graber et al. (1997) found that both early and later maturers experienced elevated levels of depression. In another epidemiological study conducted in the Los Angeles area, Siegel, Yancey, Aneshensel, and Schuler (1999) found that early-maturing girls and late-maturing boys, who constituted the two tails of the distributional continuum for pubertal maturation, reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than did the other adolescents in the sample. Other studies, however, have yielded findings that are inconsistent across gender and age, as we discuss in the next section. Relatively less attention has been paid to the third alternative, the stressful change hypothesis, than to the other theories. 

  This hypothesis predicts that, regardless of timing, adolescents in the midst of pubertal changes will manifest higher levels of distress than will youths at either pre- or postpubertal developmental stages. From this perspective, the pubertal transition is a period of dramatic physical change that calls for new psychological adaptation. Experiencing pubertal transition is considered to be inherently stressful; thus, adolescents should manifest the greatest emotional disturbance when they are going through this change. In addition, the stressful change hypothesis implies that the effects of the pubertal transition are both immediate and transient, making individual adaptation particularly difficult during times when the biological change is most rapid. The adverse effects of this period of accelerated physical maturation, however, diminish significantly after adolescents pass the transitional period. We are aware of only one study that has formally tested this hypothesis (Caspi & Moffitt, 1991). Perhaps because testing it requires longitudinal data, the possible impact of the pubertal change on adolescents’ development of major depression remains largely unexplored. With assessments of pubertal development at two time points, this study is well suited to testing the stressful change hypothesis and to evaluating Steinberg’s (1987, 1988) notion that the pubertal transition represents only a temporary perturbation.（essay代写)

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