Mental health problems of Iranian female adolescents and its association with pubertal development: a nationwide study.

Mental health problems including emotional and behavioral problems during puberty may be under influence of different risk factors including cultures, living in urban or rural areas and ethnic factors which may vary between different countries. The main aim of this study is to investigate the profile of emotional and behavioral problems and the role of factors such as age, stage of puberty, ethnicity, rurality and living in urban area, as risk factors in Iranian girls. As a part of a large national study we evaluated the emotional and behavioral problems in different stages of puberty in a community sample of Iranian adolescent girls from public schools that were selected by clustered random sampling method.

Timing of puberty in Iranian girls according to their living area: a national study.

Background: This study aimed to compare the timing of puberty between various geographic locations and different ethnicities.

Methods: This national survey was conducted in 20 provinces in Iran. Healthy Iranian girls were selected from public schools using cluster random sampling.

Assessment of pubertal development in Iranian girls.

Objective: We estimated pubertal development of 7,493 normal Iranian girls aged 6 to 20 years in a cross-sectional study.

Methods: Pubertal stages were assessed according to Tanner. The mean ages to achieve secondary sexual characteristics as well as the mean age at menarche were estimated.