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Self-harm Risk Ups for Girls and Boys Who Experience Earlier Puberty

by Colleen Fleiss on Oct 7 2020 1:51 AM

Self-harm Risk Ups for Girls and Boys Who Experience Earlier Puberty
Boys and girls who had experienced puberty earlier have a higher self-harm risk in adolescence, stated a study funded by the National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR Bristol BRC), and published in the journal Epidemiology & Psychiatric Sciences.
This is the first study to look at the relationship between the timing of puberty and self-harm. The study findings could help identify boys and girls who are at increased risk of self-harm and develop early interventions to help reduce this risk.

The data from more than 5,000 people revealed that earlier onset of puberty in both boys and girls is linked to an increased risk of self-harm at age 16 years.

Previous research has shown that girls who experience earlier puberty are at higher risk of self-harm. However, until now, the evidence for whether the puberty timing is associated with self-harm in boys was less clear.

As young people move through adolescence, their height increases sharply over a relatively short period. The timing of the maximum period of change is known as their peak height velocity: the point in time when their height is increasing at the fastest rate.

Researchers calculated age at peak height velocity from height measurements taken from 5,339 participants in the Children of the 90s (ALSPAC) study when they attended research clinics during childhood and adolescence. They calculated that the average age at peak height velocity was 13.5 years in boys and 11.8 years in girls.

By the age of 21 years, the proportion of males reporting having ever self-harmed was 28%, and the proportion of females was 35%.

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The proportion of participants reporting self-harm was highest among those with early peak height velocity and lowest among those with late peak height velocity.

For females, experiencing peak height velocity one year earlier was associated with a 15 per cent increase in the odds of self-harm at age 16 years; for males it was associated with a 28 per cent increase.

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Elystan Roberts, researcher at the University of Bristol and NIHR Bristol BRC, and the paper's lead author, said: "Our study is the first to investigate the relationship between the timing of puberty and self-harm using an objective measure of pubertal timing in boys."

Dr Becky Mars, Research Fellow in Epidemiology in Population Health Sciences at the University of Bristol's Medical School, added: "The next steps will be to identify the mechanisms that explain the association. This might be biological factors like neurological development or hormone changes, or it might be psychosocial factors like bullying, substance use or depression. Once we have a better understanding of the reasons why early developers are more likely to self-harm, interventions can be designed and delivered to help reduce self-harm risk."

Source-Medindia


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