Pubertal development, spare time activities, and adolescent delinquency: testing the contextual amplification hypothesis

Analytical performances of a novel fluorescent immunoassay of anti-Müllerian hormone and establishment of the reference intervals in Chinese children

Background

AMH is important in child growth and the concentrations change with age and gender. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the Pylon AMH assays and establish pediatric reference intervals.

Methods

The experiments on imprecision, sensitivity, linearity, reportable range, interference and comparison were carried out to evaluate the analytical performance. The AMH reference ranges were calculated in 238 females and 346 males aged 0-18 years using robust methods.

Results

The repeatability and the within-laboratory imprecision CVs of the assay were 3.7 % and 6.4 % at 2.25 ng/mL, and 4.6 % and 6.4 % at 15.49 ng/mL, respectively. The sensitivity (LoB = 0.05 ng/mL, LoD = 0.1 ng/mL and LoQ = 0.3 ng/mL) was verified. The linearity was 0.1-19.55 ng/mL and report up to 391 ng/mL with 20x pre-dilution. There was no significant interference from hemoglobin (500 mg/dL), triglyceride (500 mg/dL), bilirubin (10 mg/dL), cholesterol (800 mg/dL) and biotin (3000 ng/mL). The AMH measured by the Pylon assays correlated to those measured by the Elecsys assays. In males, the AMH levels were high at birth (0 d-1 m: median 95.10 ng/mL) and increased to a peak (7 m-1y: median 158.80 ng/mL) before they decreased with age (15-18 y: median 6.31 ng/mL). In females, the AMH concentrations were low at birth (0 d-1 m: median 0.20 ng/mL) and increased with age (15-18 y: median 3.03 ng/mL).

Conclusion

The Pylon AMH assays showed good analytical performance and the AMH reference intervals in chinese children determined may provide a basis in clinical diagnosis and treatment of related diseases.

Factors associated with risk behaviors in adolescence: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE

Understanding the distal (≤ 6 years of age) and proximal (between 6 years of age and early adolescence) factors in adolescent risk behavior is important for preventing and reducing morbidity and mortality in this population. This study sought to investigate the factors associated with the following adolescent risk behaviors: i) aggressiveness and violence, ii) tobacco, alcohol, and illicit substance use, iii) depressive behavior and self-harm (including suicidal ideation and attempts), iv) sexual risk behavior, and v) multiple risk behavior.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted to identify longitudinal studies that examined factors associated with adolescent risk behaviors. The PubMed, PsycINFO, and LILACS databases were searched.

RESULTS

Of the 249 included studies, 23% reported distal risk factors, while the remaining reported proximal risk factors. Risk factors were related to sociodemographic characteristics (neighborhood, school, and peers), family patterns, and the presence of other adolescent risk behaviors.

CONCLUSION

Distal and proximal factors in adolescent risk behavior that are not exclusively socioeconomic, familial, environmental, or social should be explored more thoroughly.

Exploring the relationship between adolescent biological maturation, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

CONTEXT

Across adolescence, there is a notable decline in physical activity in boys and girls. Maturational timing may be a risk factor for disengagement from physical activity and increased sedentary behaviours during adolescence.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review aimed to summarise literature that examined the relationship between maturational timing, physical activity and sedentary behaviour in adolescents.

METHODS

Six electronic databases were searched for articles that assessed biological maturation and physical activity (including sports participation and active transportation) or sedentary behaviours in adolescents. Two reviewers conducted title, abstract, and full-text screening, reference and forward citation searches. Included articles were evaluated for quality using a standardised tool. A narrative synthesis was used to analyse the findings due to the heterogeneity of the studies.

RESULTS

Searches yielded 78 articles (64 unique studies) that met the inclusion criteria, representing 242,316 participants (153,179 unique). Studies ranged from 30.0% (low) to 91.7% (high) in quality. An inverse relationship between maturational timing and physical activity (in 50 and 60% of studies in boys and girls, respectively) and a positive relationship between maturational timing and sedentary behaviour (in 100% and 53% of studies in boys and girls, respectively) was most commonly reported. Evidence supporting an association between maturational timing, sports participation, and active transportation was inconsistent.

CONCLUSIONS

While this review demonstrates some evidence for early maturational timing as a risk factor for disengagement from physical activity and increase in sedentary behaviours, the reviewed literature also demonstrates that this relationship is complex. Future research that tracks maturity-related variations in physical activity and sedentary behaviours over adolescence is warranted.

Endocrine markers of puberty timing and antisocial behaviour in girls and boys

BACKGROUND

Early puberty is associated with higher than average risk of antisocial behaviour, both in girls and boys. Most studies of such association, however, have focused on psychosocial mediating and moderating factors. Few refer to coterminous hormonal measures.

AIM

The aim of this review is to consider the role of hormonal markers as potential mediating or moderating factors between puberty timing and antisocial behaviour.

METHOD

A systematic literature search was conducted searching Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Psycinfo, Cochrane and Google Scholar.

RESULTS

Just eight studies were found to fit criteria, all cross-sectional. Measurements were too heterogeneous to allow meta-analysis. The most consistent associations found were between adrenal hormones-both androgens and cortisol-which were associated with early adrenarche and antisocial behaviours in girls and later adrenarche and antisocial behaviour in boys.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings from our review suggest that longitudinal studies to test bidirectional hormone-behaviour associations with early or late puberty would be worthwhile. In view of the interactive processes between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axes, integrated consideration of the hormonal end products is recommended.

Maternal depressive symptoms in childhood and risky behaviours in early adolescence

Longitudinal patterns of maternal depressive symptoms have yet to be linked to risky behaviours, such as substance use or violence, in early adolescence, when such behaviours may be particularly detrimental. This study was carried out to do this. Using data from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study, it modelled the effect of trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms at child ages 3, 5, 7 and 11 years on antisocial behaviour and delinquency at age 11 years (N = 12,494). It also explored their role in predicting moral judgement and attitudes to alcohol at age 11, important predictors of delinquent or antisocial behaviour and alcohol use, respectively. Latent class analysis showed four longitudinal types of maternal depressive symptoms (chronically high, consistently low, moderate-accelerating and moderate-decelerating). Maternal symptom typology predicted antisocial behaviour in males and attitudes to alcohol in females, even after adjusting for youth's age and pubertal status and after correcting for confounding. Specifically, compared to males growing up with never-depressed mothers, those exposed to chronically high or accelerating maternal depressive symptoms were more likely to report engaging in loud and rowdy behaviour, alcohol use and bullying. Females exposed to chronically high maternal depressive symptoms were more likely than those growing up with never-depressed mothers to support the view that alcohol use is harmless. While causal conclusions cannot be drawn, these findings suggest that preventing or treating maternal depressive symptoms in childhood may be a useful approach to reducing future externalising and health-risk behaviours in offspring.

The dual systems model: Review, reappraisal, and reaffirmation

According to the dual systems perspective, risk taking peaks during adolescence because activation of an early-maturing socioemotional-incentive processing system amplifies adolescents' affinity for exciting, pleasurable, and novel activities at a time when a still immature cognitive control system is not yet strong enough to consistently restrain potentially hazardous impulses. We review evidence from both the psychological and neuroimaging literatures that has emerged since 2008, when this perspective was originally articulated. Although there are occasional exceptions to the general trends, studies show that, as predicted, psychological and neural manifestations of reward sensitivity increase between childhood and adolescence, peak sometime during the late teen years, and decline thereafter, whereas psychological and neural reflections of better cognitive control increase gradually and linearly throughout adolescence and into the early 20s. While some forms of real-world risky behavior peak at a later age than predicted, this likely reflects differential opportunities for risk-taking in late adolescence and young adulthood, rather than neurobiological differences that make this age group more reckless. Although it is admittedly an oversimplification, as a heuristic device, the dual systems model provides a far more accurate account of adolescent risk taking than prior models that have attributed adolescent recklessness to cognitive deficiencies.

High School Sports Involvement Diminishes the Association Between Childhood Conduct Disorder and Adult Antisocial Behavior

PURPOSE

Life course-persistent antisocial behavior manifests as a display of aggressive and antisocial behavior beginning in childhood (conduct disorder [CD]) and lasting through adulthood (adult antisocial personality disorder). This study aimed to build on prior research by evaluating whether involvement in high school sports helped attenuate the association between CD and subsequent adult antisocial behavior (AAB).

METHODS

A prospective sample of 967 male and female adolescents (56% adopted) was used. Structured interviews were used to assess CD (symptoms before the age of 15 years), involvement in sports during high school, and past-year adult antisocial personality disorder symptoms in young adulthood (M age = 22.4 years).

RESULTS

As expected, the association between CD and AAB was significantly less for those involved in sports (β = .28; p < .001) compared with those not involved in sports (β = .49; p < .001), χ(2)(1) = 4.13; p = .04. This difference remained after including known covariates of antisocial behavior in the model (age, gender, adoption status), and results were consistent across males and females. Involvement in other extracurricular activities (e.g., student government, plays, clubs) did not significantly moderate the relationship between CD and AAB.

CONCLUSIONS

Although selection effects were evident (those with more CD symptoms were less likely to be involved in sports), findings nevertheless suggest high school sports involvement may be a notable factor related to disrupting persistent antisocial behavior beginning in childhood and adolescence and lasting through young adulthood. Implications are discussed.

Effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on pubertal development

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) and pubertal development. Children (n=192; 41% with PCE) completed the Pubertal Development Scale (Petersen et al. 1988) and provided salivary dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) samples at 6month intervals from 11 to 13years. PCE was examined as a predictor of pubertal status, pubertal tempo, and DHEA levels in mixed models analyses controlling for age, sex, environmental risk, neonatal medical problems, other prenatal exposures, and BMI. PCE interacted with age such that PCE predicted slower pubertal tempo during early adolescence. PCE also interacted with age to predict slower increases in DHEA levels during early adolescence. These findings suggest that PCE may affect pubertal development and, if slower pubertal tempo continues, could lead to delayed pubertal status in mid-adolescence.