Premium
Off‐Time Pubertal Timing Predicts Physiological Reactivity to Postpuberty Interpersonal Stress
Author(s) -
Smith Anne Emilie,
Powers Sally I.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2009.00602.x
Subject(s) - psychology , anticipation (artificial intelligence) , reactivity (psychology) , interpersonal communication , interpersonal relationship , developmental psychology , task (project management) , young adult , clinical psychology , social psychology , medicine , alternative medicine , management , pathology , artificial intelligence , computer science , economics
We investigated associations between retrospectively assessed timing of pubertal development, interpersonal interactions, and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis reactivity to an interpersonal stress task in 110 young adult women. Participants provided salivary cortisol samples at points prior and subsequent to a video‐taped conflict discussion with their romantic partner. Participants also provided subjective global ratings of their discussion on dimensions of conflict and support. For earlier developing girls, higher levels of interpersonal conflict were associated with greater physiological stress in anticipation of the discussion task and less physiological recovery following the discussion. In contrast, for later developing girls, low levels of conflict were associated with greater anticipatory stress and less physiological recovery. These findings have implications for understanding the influence of off‐time pubertal development on the lifetime development of young women.