UCLA

In addition to the biological and hormonal changes that characterize puberty, the pubertal transition is accompanied by significant psychological and social challenges. Research has established that pubertal experiences can lead to psychopathology among youth, with most studies examining the role of pubertal timing relative to peers. However, less is known about the mechanisms through which off-time development contributes to psychopathology, the impact of characteristics of puberty other than timing, and the influence of pubertal processes on mental health beyond adolescence. The present dissertation sought to explore these issues via three related studies. Given the marked increase in rates of depression during adolescence as well as the emergence of a gender disparity in depression prevalence that persists into adulthood, the dissertation focused on the association between pubertal experiences and depressive symptoms.

Study 1 utilized a large, community sample to test four psychosocial mechanisms that have been proposed to account for the link between off-time development and depressive symptoms among youth. The results supported the stage termination, personal accentuation, and contextual amplification hypotheses among females, but did not support any hypotheses among males. Study 2 further explored contextual amplification by assessing which types of environmental stress exacerbate the effects of off-time development. Chronic interpersonal stressors interacted with pubertal timing among females while dependent episodic stressful events were associated with the highest level of depressive symptoms among early-maturing males. Study 3 examined whether pubertal synchrony, the degree to which various markers of puberty mature simultaneously, was associated with depression among females. Evidence suggested that asynchronous development led to the highest levels of depressive symptoms in young adulthood, particularly among late-maturing girls.

Together, the results of the dissertation indicate that females are particularly vulnerable to the influence of pubertal experiences on mental health and suggest several mechanisms through which puberty influences depression among females. Males appear to be less likely to react to variations in pubertal timing by becoming depressed. The findings suggest several pathways for future research including the integration of proposed biological and psychosocial mechanisms and the continued exploration of pubertal processes as a contributor to the gender gap in depression prevalence.