Early puberty and peer pressure plays an important role in girls showing physically aggressive and delinquent behavior.
Girls who experience their first menstrual cycle before they reach 11 years of age are more likely to display problematic behavior, according to a press release. This includes physical aggression and delinquent behavior.
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that though this aggressive behavior subsides by the time girls turn 16, they continue to show more delinquent behavior than girls who don't experience early puberty.
"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," explained the study's lead author Sylvie Mrug, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Psychology. "Thus it is important to understand how these problem behaviors develop and how pubertal timing and friends' behavior - among other variables - contribute to them."
Similar observations were made among young girls who had best friends with problematic behavior. After interviewing more than 2,600 girls and their parents about early puberty onset and best friends' problem behavior, researchers found that girls with problematic friends also displayed delinquent behavior. These interviews were conducted three times between the ages of 11 to 16.
"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," Mrug said. "The most interesting finding was that girls who experienced early puberty reported more delinquent behavior if their best friend was more deviant."
Results of the study confirm that girls who mature earlier are more vulnerable to negative influence from friends. However, this influence is not long-term and wears off by the time a girl reaches 16 year of age.
Authors of the study emphasize on the need to carry out similar studies to see what other factors influence a person's life.
