Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 3, 2025

Determination of Reproductive Competence by Confirming Pubertal Onset and Performing a Fertility Assay in Mice and Rats
Published on: October 13, 2018
In their own words: Finding meaning in girls' experiences of puberty
1Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
Abstract:
The present study pairs narrative meaning-making with topic modeling to richly capture how girls choose to describe their experiences of change during puberty and to establish how these narratives map onto depressive symptoms. Participants (N = 125 girls; Mage = 11.61 years; 90.40% White) wrote about changes during puberty and reported their level of pubertal development, relationships, and mood. The relationship between meaning-making and depressive symptoms was negatively moderated by early pubertal timing (d = .31) and positively moderated by more advanced pubertal status (d = .36). Exploratory analyses indicated that writing proportionally more about menstruation-related changes had a small effect on subsequent depressive symptoms (f2 = .12). Results provide a conceptual and methodological update to decades-old, landmark qualitative findings on girls' perceptions and assessments of experiences at puberty.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Signs of Puberty
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth....
Ethnic Identity within a Larger Culture
Psychosexual Stages of Personality: Phallic
Psychosexual Stages of Personality: Latency
The latency period is not...

