Early puberty leads to aggressive behavior in girls, a latest study by researchers of University of Alabama at Birmingham shows.
The researchers surveyed 2,600 girls and their parents for the study. They wanted to understand the influence of their best friend's problematic behavior on the participants' behavior.
The participants, aged between 11 and 16, were interviewed three separate times. The study results showed that the girls whose best friend's behavioral characteristics included lying, cheating, back answering adults, showed more delinquent behavior by the age of 11.
"Delinquency and aggression put adolescents at risk for many negative outcomes in the future, including lower educational achievement, substance abuse, depression and problems in relationships," the study's lead author Sylvie Mrug, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Psychology, said in a press release. "Thus it is important to understand how these problem behaviors develop and how pubertal timing and friends' behavior -- among other variables -- contribute to them."
The researchers also found that by the age of 16 girls showed decreased levels of physical aggression but their delinquent behavior continued. "This suggests that negative peer influences from best friends at age 11 are short-lived, perhaps because best friends change as children enter middle school. The most interesting finding was that girls who experienced early puberty reported more delinquent behavior if their best friend was more deviant. It is important for parents and other adults to monitor who the friends are and what the girls do with their friends. Of course this is important for all children and adolescents, but it may be even more critical for girls who mature early, as they are more vulnerable," Mrug explained.
The researchers also stated that early onset of puberty and delinquent behavior by the age of 11 did not have any long term effects.
The finding was published in the journal Pediatrics.
