Puberty usually occurs for girls between ages 8 to 14, and boys between ages 9 to 16. The growing childhood obesity rate has boys and girls experiencing puberty before they even enter middle school.
More children are maturing at an earlier age - a change that is attributed to being overweight, according to professor of psychology Laurence Steinberg at Temple University. Early puberty can put kids at a greater risk for behavioral and psychological problems given that their brains haven’t developed impulse control learned during the teenage years.
Girls’ signs of puberty are easier to observe than boys. Young females have started to menstruate around age 12, down from 14 or 15 at the beginning of the 20th century. Breast development has also dropped significantly from 13 years old in 1960 to age 10 by the mid-1990s. Some physicians have even reported seeing “breast budding” as early as 7 or 8 years old, according to Steinberg.
A study published in 2013 determined girls with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 85 to 95 percent developed breasts as early as age 8.5, according to lead author Dr. Frank Biro, a pediatrics professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Girls with a BMI less than 50 percent started development at age 10. The study did not note the start of girls’ menstruation.
To determine boys' early puberty rates, researchers have studied children’s choirs to see when the male participants' voices break, according to Steinberg. Today, boys are acquiring a deeper voice closer to age 10 compared to age 13 in 1960.
Problems that can arise because of early puberty include abuse, precocious sex and delinquency, according to Steinberg. Girls also can develop depression, anxiety, panic attacks and eating disorders. Also they’re at a greater risk of breast cancer as women.
