Kasey Stack

Previous research has examined the associations between pubertal timing and later life outcomes, with an emphasis on earlier puberty as a risk factor for the development of depressive symptoms. The present study expands upon this body of research by investigating the relationship between pubertal timing and substance use, emotional problems, and risky behavior in adolescence. Participants were male and female twins who had been prospectively assessed during adolescence (N = 2510). Pubertal timing was assessed at age 14, and substance use, emotional problems, and risky behavior variables were assessed at age 17 with self- and parent reports. There was a significant, positive linear association between pubertal timing and multiple indicators of substance use, emotional problems, and risky behavior, including alcohol use, nicotine use, cannabis use, emotional distress, having been bullied, risky behavior, risky sex, and antisocial peers; the association with prosocial peers was nonsignificant. There was only a significant sex interaction for cannabis use, suggesting that associations between pubertal timing and substance use, emotional problems, and risky behavior were largely comparable among boys and girls. Overall, results from this study suggest that earlier pubertal timing is associated with increased substance use, emotional problems, and risky behaviors in adolescent boys and girls in a range of important domains.