NCJ Number
215390
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 541-550
Date Published
August 2006
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study investigated how pubertal timing was perceived in urban Turkish adolescents in terms of their feelings about maturation, their relationships with their parents, and their self-perception.
Abstract
The findings of this study suggest that the impact of early versus late maturation in Turkish urban adolescents differs between girls and boys, which are consistent with widely available data in the literature. However, the difference between girls and boys appears to be more pronounced in a Turkish urban adolescent sample as girls in general report more negative feelings. Based on responses, most of the adolescents in the study perceived themselves as on-time developers in comparison with their peers. It was observed that the percentage of late maturing boys was significantly lower than that of girls. Overall comparison confirmed widely accepted findings, indicating that girls’ feelings were more negative than boys’ feelings toward all dimensions of pubertal maturation. Since the late 1930s, the effects of pubertal timing on adolescent development have been studied. Recent studies have revealed that the timing of puberty in adolescent boys and girls compared with their peers seems to have important implications for self-concept, body image, and psychosocial adjustment. However, there have been no studies directly examining the role of pubertal status and/or pubertal timing on parent-adolescent relationships. This study was primarily interested in the general association of perceived pubertal timing to feelings about pubertal maturation, parent-adolescent relationships, and self-perception. Participants in the study were selected from four schools representing urban adolescents. The study sample consisted of 697 Turkish high-school students, evenly split between boys and girls. Figures, table, and references