Psychosocial stress linked to puberty timing

Chronic psychosocial stress (PS) appears to contribute to the delayed onset of pubertal signs in children, suggests a recent study.

“It may also accelerate testicular development of boys, indicating its varying impact on pubertal timing during early and later stages,” the researchers said.

In this study, researchers physically examined the pubertal outcomes of 732 girls and 688 boys every 6 months, as well as stressful life events seven times. They then fitted a group-based trajectory model for the optimum trajectories of total PS and PS from five sources. Finally, associations were explored using a Cox model adjusted for age, BMI, and socioeconomic factors.

In girls, the “moderate, gradual decline” trajectory of total PS correlated with late menarche (hazard ratio [HR], 0.816, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.677‒0.983), late pubic hair development (HR, 0.729, 95 percent CI, 0.609‒0.872), and late axillary hair development (HR, 0.803, 95 percent CI, 0.661‒0.975) compared with the “low, gradual decline” trajectory.

In addition, girls following the “high, rise then decline” trajectory of PS from family life had delayed axillary hair development (HR, 0.752, 95 percent CI, 0.571‒0.990).

On the other hand, boys following the “high, rise then decline” trajectory of PS from academic adaptation (HR, 0.670, 95 percent CI, 0.476‒0.945) and life adaptation (HR, 0.642, 95 percent CI, 0.445‒0.925) demonstrated late axillary hair development.

Moreover, boys in the “moderate, gradual decline” trajectory of PS from peer relationships had a higher risk of early testicular development (HR, 1.353, 95 percent CI, 1.108‒1.653).