Girls in fatherless families may enter puberty early
Girls in fatherless families may enter puberty early
Girls growing up in higher-income homes without a biological father are likely to reach puberty earlier than others, which is published in of the Journal of Adolescent Health (9/17/2010).
The study led by Julianna Deardorff at the University of California Berkeley's School of Public Health found the absence of a biological related father in the home was associated with earlier breast and pubic hair development in girls in higher income households.
According to a recent press release made by UC Berkeley, one study of 1200 girls released last month found about 15 percent of the girls started developing their breasts at age 7. The study also reported by foodconsumer.org was led by researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Early puberty has been linked to a number of health problems including reduced self-esteem, eating disorders, depression, early sexual activity, and later menopause, which is linked to elevated risk of risk breast cancer and other female reproductive cancers.
Earlier puberty in girls may have something to do with their diet. Previous studies by other researchers suggest eating soy products in childhood may help delay puberty while environmental toxins such as estrogenic chemicals, childhood obesity and high intake of sugar and animal protein can push girls to enter puberty early.
"While overweight and obesity alter the timing of girls' puberty, those factors don't explain all of the variance in pubertal timing. The results from our study suggest that familial and contextual factors independent of body mass index have an important effect on girls' pubertal timing,"- Deardorff said. What Dr. Deardorff said is essentially that a family environment is important for girls.
Jay Belsky, of Birkbeck University in London last month published a study in Psychological Science saying that an insecure infant-mother attachment bond was linked with increased risk of early puberty.
Bruce J. Ellis at the University of Arizona and Marilyn J. Essex at the University of Wisconsin Madison reported in 2007 in the journal Child Development that girls who grew up with supportive parents who themselves had a strong relationship were more likely to delay the onset of puberty.
Anthony Bogaert, a professor of community health sciences at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada, reported a link between absent fathers and early puberty in boys and girls in in 2005 in the Journal of Adolescence.
Looking at a national sample, he found that those who had had an absent father at 14 had likely had an early age of puberty. For his study, he defined puberty for girls as the onset of menstruation and for boys, voice change.
"It is difficult to know why this relationship occurs -- for example, stress, genes -- so more work needs to be conducted on the exact mechanism underlying it," he said. This new study is an "interesting" addition to the literature on the topic, he said.
How can parents in father-absent homes compensate, if at all?
Until researchers determine the cause of the connection, Bogaert said it's premature to offer suggestions.
For the recent study, published Sept. 17 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Deardorff and her colleagues followed 444 girls, aged 6 to 8 at the start, and their mothers. They gathered extensive data on factors such as weight, height, stage of breast and pubic hair development, father's presence and income. Eighty percent of the girls said their fathers did not live with them.
They found the absence of a biologically related father was associated with earlier breast development in girls in families having annual household incomes of $50,000 or higher. Father absence predicted earlier onset of pubic hair development only in high income African American families.
Girls are reaching puberty earlier in the United States, where the average age of menstruation is about 12 years, Deardorff said. Recent research has found some girls starting to develop breasts as early as age 7 or 8.
The researchers offered a few explanations. One of them was girls in fatherless families were more likely to receive less care from the single mother who needed to work long hours and was not available for the care her girls needed. The speculation is supported by early studies suggesting that the mother-girl bond is important.
A health observer suggested that because single mothers normally don't have enough time to prepare meals for their girls, leaving them all to mostly use processed foods, which can contain high animal protein, high fat, and high sugar. A diet full of such foods has been linked with early puberty.
They also found, as other researchers have, that higher body-mass index (BMI), a calculation based on height and weight, was also linked with earlier puberty.
The authors said they can only speculate on the reasons behind the connections. Exposure to more artificial light from TVs or computers is one theory. Other possibilities include weak maternal bonding, assuming a single mother is working long hours, or contact with chemicals that may have estrogenic effects -- perhaps hair straighteners in the case of black preteens.
"It's possible girls in those homes are exposed to different environmental exposures, for example, toxins," Deardorff said. They may be exposed more to cosmetics and other personal care products, for instance, and some experts have expressed concerns about what they see as hormone-disrupting chemicals in those products.
Girls in fatherless families may enter puberty early
By: alam.md
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