Abstract:
Childhood psychosocial stressors have been proposed to favour fast life history strategies promoting earlier puberty in females. However, studies demonstrating this association often do not elucidate causal mechanisms, nor account for greater childhood energetic availability - also known to promote rapid growth and earlier puberty. To assess the extent to which such confounding has been considered, we conducted a systematized review to identify studies examining measures of both prepubertal growth (e.g. weight, height) and psychosocial stressors (e.g. adversity, father absence) in relation to female pubertal timing. A total of 1069 non-duplicated studies were identified across five databases. Twenty studies met selection criteria for critical review following independent screening of titles, abstracts and manuscripts. Within these studies, measures indicative of rapid childhood growth were more consistently associated with earlier pubertal timing than were measures of psychosocial stress. We discuss future research directions to investigate the impact of psychosocial stress on pubertal timing more robustly, including methodological and mechanistic considerations, and contextualization of findings by socioecological environments.
摘要:
已经提出了儿童期心理社会压力源,以支持快速生活史策略,以促进女性的青春期提前。然而,证明这种关联的研究通常不能阐明因果机制,也不能解释儿童时期更多的精力供应-也可以促进快速生长和更早的青春期。为了评估这种混杂因素被认为的程度,我们进行了系统化的审查,以确定检查两种青春期前生长指标的研究(例如体重,身高)和心理社会压力源(例如逆境,父亲缺席)与女性青春期时间的关系。在五个数据库中确定了总共1069项非重复研究。20项研究符合独立筛选标题后批判性审查的选择标准,摘要和手稿。在这些研究中,与心理社会压力的指标相比,表明儿童快速成长的指标与青春期早期更一致。我们讨论了未来的研究方向,以更有力地研究社会心理压力对青春期时间的影响,包括方法论和机械方面的考虑,和社会生态环境对研究结果的语境化。