Concordant and discordant sexual maturation among U.S. children in relation to body weight and BMI.

Purpose: This study investigates the extent to which discordant Tanner stages for sexual maturity indicators are associated with weight and body mass index (BMI) and their variation during adolescence. Discordant children with large differences in weight and BMI may require additional monitoring of their growth during adolescence.

Methods: Weight, BMI and Tanner stages, pubic hair in each gender, breast development in girls and genital development in boys, from 2103 boys and 2104 girls aged 8-18 years (average age 13.

Is sexual maturity occurring earlier among U.S. children?

Purpose: To compare the onset and completion of sexual maturation among U.S. children between 1966 and 1994.

Age at menarche and racial comparisons in US girls.

Background: Concern regarding change in the onset of sexual maturation of US girls has increased the need for current information on age at menarche from a national sample. Previous reports have been sparse and interpretation has been limited because of the racial composition and ages of the samples.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to estimate the distribution of age at menarche for all US girls and for non-Hispanic white, black, and Mexican American girls in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and to test for racial differences.

National estimates of the timing of sexual maturation and racial differences among US children.

Objective: To provide clinically meaningful, normative reference data that describe the timing of sexual maturity indicators among a national sample of US children and to determine the degree of racial/ethnic differences in these estimates for each maturity indicator.

Methods: Tanner staging assessment of sexual maturity indicators was recorded from 4263 non-Hispanic white, black, and Mexican American girls and boys aged 8.00 to 19.

The effects of sex steroids on spatial performance: a review and an experimental clinical investigation.

Males typically surpass females in spatial performance, an outcome that may be linked to testosterone and estrogen. The authors (a) review physiological mechanisms, developmental periods, and past empirical work relevant to sex steroids' effects on human spatial performance and (b) report an experimental study of the role of actively circulating sex steroids in adolescents being treated for delayed puberty (N = 55; mean age = 13.70 years).