Pubertal Stage and Depression: A Test of Within-Person Effects and Psychosocial Mediators

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that pubertal development may contribute to the gender gap indepression that emerges during adolescence, but past work has been limited by the use of crosssectional analyses. The current study utilized multilevel parallel process growth models to test sex and racial differences in the association between within-person change in pubertal stage and within-person change in depressive symptoms across adolescence, controlling for age. Models were tested in a community sample of 608 youth aged 13 at baseline (Boys: M = 13.03, SD = 0.80; Girls: M = 13.08, SD = 1.00) balanced on sex and race (Caucasian/White and African American/Black). It also tested body esteem, stressful life events, and peer victimization as mediators of this relation. Results suggested that depression increased with adrenal stage among boys, but depression was unrelated to pubertal stage among girls. Further, there was no evidence of racial differences in these associations. We did not find any evidence for body esteem, stressful life events, or peer victimization as mediators of the association between pubertal stage (adrenal or gonadal) and depressive symptoms. Limitations such as the age and advanced development among participants may explain these findings.