I reckon I might cop a lot of heat from this one, so here goes;

I work as a family physician and my colleagues and I all have noticed the same phenomena.
From my own observations it seems to appear that girls from more "strict" families seem to entery puberty later than girls from more "relaxed" families. Also the girls from more strict families tend to dress more conservatively than girls from the other group.

Now it is well known that children who grow up in emotionally damaging environments actually have growth retardation; in other words the environment a child grows in effects their growth.

Is it possible that the more sexualised environment a child grows in, the earlier the entry into puberty? I think it would be worthy of future study.

Posted by: The Social Pathologist on November 1, 2006 3:47 PM

Well, our household is definitely of the messy l1iberal variety, and we gave our daughter plenty of freedom. She reached puberty at 16 and a half.

Posted by: Lea Luke on November 1, 2006 5:11 PM

Of course, no-one considers the environmental impact of female hormones from birth-control pills exiting the human body and entering the environment, getting into the food chain, the water table, etc.

Posted by: anon on November 3, 2006 10:58 PM

What I find interesting is that, after reading the article -- which presents quite plausible real chemical reasons for early puberty -- The Social Pathologist responds by crafting some sort of Lysenkoist theory that liberal thoughts somehow confer puberty on children.

Posted by: anon on November 5, 2006 2:29 AM






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