Remember how awkward and confused you felt as a teen? It's a time of so many big changes – growth spurts, body hair, and acne, just to name a few – but perhaps the most radical transformation is going on inside the adolescent brain. CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta dives into the neuroscience of the teen brain with psychologist Valerie Reyna to figure out how teens make decisions and weigh risks. Plus, tips for teens (and anyone who’s been a teen) on how we can support one another through this challenging stage of life.

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In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Jane Mendle discuss how little girls who enter puberty very early often experience lasting and serious outcomes, such as educational underachievement, depression, substance abuse, and delinquency.  The underlying causes and trajectories of these negative outcomes are discussed by Dr. Jane Mendle, Director of the Adolescent Transitions Laboratory at Cornell University.

 Key Takeaways:  

• Existing research suggests that puberty, regardless of when it occurs, is tougher for girls than it is for boys.
• Girls who go through puberty ahead of their peer group are at a higher risk to develop depression and anxiety, and disordered eating.
• Early maturing boys also show higher rates of depression.  They exhibit higher rates of delinquent behaviors, earlier transition to using alcohol and smoking and other substances.
• Parental advice for those who have a little girl that's experiencing early puberty may or may not develop problems, but good communication with the girl and with her pediatrician is essential during puberty.

"It's easy to confuse physical maturity for cognitive or emotional maturity, but early puberty girls have the same age-appropriate maturity levels as any girl of the same age." —  Dr. Jane Mendle

Connect with guest:    

Email: jem482@cornell.edu

Website: human.cornell.edu

Blog: blogs.cornell.edu/mendlelab/

Connect with Therese:  

Website: www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak  

Click the link below to hear our scholar and Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Cornell University Katherine Kinzler discuss her work in child food preferences (with collaborators Zoe Liberman, University of California, Santa Barbara; and at the University of Chicago, Samantha Fan, Amanda Woodward, Boaz Keysar); and how working with scholars in our project across the fields of psychology, philosophy, and theology has impacted her approach to thinking about her research.

Next week on The Virtue Blog, we’ll post related writing by Kinzler.

Katherine Kinzler | Virtue Talk

Katherine Kinzler is Associate Professor of Psychology and Associate Professor of Human Development at Cornell University and Scholar with the project Virtue, Happiness, & the Meaning of Life. Read more here.

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