J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
DOI 10.1007/s10964-010-9611-9
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Ethnicity, Perceived Pubertal Timing, Externalizing Behaviors,
and Depressive Symptoms Among Black Adolescent Girls
Rona Carter Cleopatra Howard Caldwell
Niki Matusko Toni Antonucci James S. Jackson
Received: 2 August 2010 / Accepted: 9 November 2010 / Published online: 19 November 2010
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract An accumulation of research evidence suggests
that early pubertal timing plays a significant role in girls
behavioral and emotional problems. If early pubertal tim-
ing is a problematic event, then early developing Black
girls should manifest evidence of this crisis because they
tend to be the earliest to develop compared to other girls
from different racial and ethnic groups. Given the incon-
sistent findings among studies using samples of Black girls,
the present study examined the independent influence of
perceived pubertal timing and age of menarche on exter-
nalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms in a nationally
representative sample of Black girls (412 African Ameri-
can and 195 Caribbean Black; M = 15 years). Path anal-
ysis results indicated that perceived pubertal timing effects
on externalizing behaviors were moderated by ethnic sub-
group. Caribbean Black girls who perceived their devel-
opment to be early engaged in more externalizing
behaviors than Caribbean Black girls who perceived their
R. Carter (&)
T. Antonucci
J. S. Jackson
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
e-mail: ronac@umich.edu
T. Antonucci
e-mail: tca@isr.umich.edu
J. S. Jackson
e-mail: jamessj@umich.edu
C. H. Caldwell
School of Public Health, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
e-mail: cleoc@umich.edu
N. Matusko
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
e-mail: snk@isr.umich.edu
123
development to be either on-time or late. Age of menarche
did not significantly predict Black girls externalizing
behaviors and depressive symptoms. The onset of menar-
che does not appear to be an important predictor of Black
girls symptoms of externalizing behavior and depression.
These findings suggest ethnic subgroup and perceived
pubertal timing are promising factors for better under-
standing the adverse effects of early perceived pubertal
timing among Black girls.
Keywords Perceived pubertal timing
Age of menarche

Caribbean Blacks
African Americans
Adolescent girls

Depressive symptoms
Externalizing behaviors
Introduction
There is an accumulation of research evidence indicating
that girls who experience puberty early display more
problem behaviors and signs of emotional distress than
their peers who experience puberty either on-time or late
(e.g., Caspi and Moffitt 1991; Ge et al. 2001; Graber et al.
2004; Lynne et al. 2007; Natsuaki et al. 2009). The most
widely used explanation for the link between early pubertal
timing and girls behavioral and emotional problems is the
Stage Termination Hypothesis (Peskin and Livson 1972;
Petersen and Taylor 1980). According to this hypothesis,
early pubertal timing does not allow girls sufficient time to
complete prior developmental tasks before the onset of
puberty and new developmental pressures (e.g., moving
into older mixed-sex peer groups, entering romantic rela-
tionships). The physical changes that occur during puberty
may compound early developing girls difficulties because
other individuals (e.g., peers, parents, teachers) may view
the girls as older and more socially and cognitively
J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
advanced than the girls, in fact, are (Caspi 1995; Caspi and
Moffitt 1991). Several studies (e.g., Caspi and Moffitt
1991; Ge et al. 1996, 2001; Haynie 2003) have provided
evidence for the Stage Termination Hypothesis.
The link between early pubertal timing and adolescent
girls behavioral and emotional problems has been estab-
lished mainly in samples of European Americans (see
Connolly et al. 1996; Ellis 2004, for reviews). Research
using samples of Black adolescent girls is sparse. The little
work that has been conducted has yielded inconsistent
findings. Some studies report similar findings as those
obtained with European American girls (e.g., Carter et al.
2009; Ge et al. 2002, 2003; Siegel et al. 1999); other
studies have not found a link between early pubertal timing
and Black adolescent girls behavioral and emotional
problems (e.g., Hayward et al. 1999; Michael and Eccles
2003; Striegel-Moore et al. 2001) or have found that both
early and late pubertal timing are related to poor adjust-
ment problems in Black adolescent girls (Carter et al. 2009;
Michael and Eccles 2003). These disparate findings high-
light the need for further clarification of the effects of early
pubertal timing on Black adolescent girls adjustment.
If early pubertal timing is a problematic event, as sug-
gested by the Stage Termination Hypothesis, then early
developing Black adolescent girls should manifest evi-
dence of this crisis because they tend to be the earliest to
develop compared to other girls from different racial and
ethnic groups (Biro et al. 2010; Herman-Giddings et al.
1997). The main purpose of the present study therefore was
to clarify the nature of the relation between early pubertal
timing and behavioral and emotional problems within this
population. The range of findings observed in samples of
Black adolescent girls may be due to a number of factors,
including assessment modality, population sampling, sta-
tistical methods, the informant source of the girls psy-
chosocial adjustment or pubertal development, and
measurement approaches. This study focused on sample
characteristics and measurement approaches.
Pubertal Effects on Black Adolescent Girls
Psychosocial Adjustment: The Importance of Different
Pubertal Indicators
Differences in findings regarding links between early
pubertal timing and behavioral and emotional problems
among Black adolescent girls may be related to the mea-
surement of pubertal timing. Most studies either use age of
menarche as an index of pubertal timing or combine mul-
tiple indicators of development, such as age of menarche,
development of breasts, changes in height, and changes in
skin, as an index of pubertal timing (see Hayward 2003). It
is likely that different indicators of pubertal development
may have different associations with Black adolescent
1395
girls behavioral and emotional problems (Brooks-Gunn
and Warren 1985; Slap et al. 1994; Swarr and Richards
1996). For example, menarche is a private event and may
not be a factor in girls social interactions; whereas the
development of breasts is a visible event likely to draw
public reactions. Thus, external pubertal indicators such as
the development of breasts may be more salient to parents
and peers than less noticeable indicators such as menarche.
Thus, other individuals (e.g., peers, parents, and teachers)
may treat Black adolescent girls differently as a function of
the former, but not the latter.
Distinct from the physical indicators of pubertal timing
is a girls perception of her pubertal timing relative to her
peer group. Perceived pubertal timing assesses whether
girls see themselves as being non-normative in one direc-
tion (early) or the other (late), which can affect girls
images of themselves and, in turn, their adjustment. The
Social Deviance Hypothesis (Alsaker 1992) is a common
explanation for links between early and late pubertal tim-
ing and girls behavioral and emotional problems. This
hypothesis states that early and late pubertal timing place
adolescents out of sync with the normative experiences of
their peers during a developmental period that is already
characterized by heightened vulnerabilities. The Social
Deviance Hypothesis thus predicts a nonlinear effect of
pubertal timing such that both early and late developing
girls are anticipated to be at greatest risk for adjustment
difficulties due, in part, to the perceived lack of shared
experience with others.
Studies of perceived pubertal timing have demonstrated
more difficulties among adolescents who perceive that they
are either early or late in their pubertal development rela-
tive to adolescents who perceive themselves to be on-time
(e.g., Carter et al. 2009; Michael and Eccles 2003; Siegel
et al. 1999). Michael and Eccles (2003), for example,
examined the influence of racial group, perceived pubertal
timing, and retrospective self-reports of pubertal timing
(i.e., age of menarche) on adolescent girls psychosocial
adjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms, eating disturbance,
anger, problem behaviors, and internalizing and external-
izing behaviors). Results relevant to the present study
demonstrated that African American girls who perceived
their pubertal timing as either early or late relative to their
peers had significantly more psychosocial adjustment
problems than African American girls who perceived their
development as on-time. African American girls reports of
age of menarche were not significantly related to psycho-
social adjustment problems. Carter et al. (2009) reported
similar findings for African American girls retrospective
reports of age of menarche and psychosocial adjustment.
Taken together, findings from the above studies suggest
that there may be other important influences on girls
responses to their developing bodies beyond physical
123
1396
indicators of pubertal timing (i.e., age of menarche). Per-
ceived pubertal timing may reflect a different process than
direct inquiry regarding the onset of puberty, possibly at
the social rather than biological level, yielding new and
important information. In order to investigate these addi-
tional factors, this study examined the independent influ-
ence of both perceived pubertal timing and age of
menarche on externalizing behaviors and depressive
symptoms in a nationally representative sample of African
American and Caribbean Black adolescent girls.
Pubertal Effects on Black Adolescent Girls
Psychosocial Adjustment: The Importance of Ethnic
Subgroup Membership
Inconsistent findings regarding links between early puber-
tal timing and behavioral and emotional problems among
Black adolescent girls may also be related to ethnic sub-
group membership (e.g., African American or Caribbean
Black). Ethnic subgroup differences within the Black
population in the United States are largely neglected in
psychological research (Collins 1992). Black Americans
comprise individuals of varied primary languages, coun-
tries of origin, history, and cultural beliefs and socialization
practices (Hopp and Herring 1999). These differences
between ethnic subgroups within the Black American
population may therefore influence the meaning that girls
attribute to the physical and hormonal changes associated
with puberty.
African American adolescent girls, for example, tend to
describe their body ideal in terms of personality charac-
teristics (e.g., style, attitude, pride, confidence); whereas
European American adolescent girls tend to describe their
body ideal in terms of fixed physical attributes (e.g., tall,
thin, high cheekbones; Parker et al. 1995). Girls who adopt
body ideals in terms of personality characteristics are
hypothesized to be less vulnerable to the distress generated
by the physical and hormonal changes associated with
puberty (Polivy and Herman 2003; Thompson and Stice
2001). Therefore, the effects of pubertal timing on Carib-
bean Black adolescent girls psychosocial adjustment may
vary depending on the extent to which they depart from
African American subculture standards of feminine
physical attractiveness.
Caribbean Black adolescent girls may adopt different
body ideals then African American adolescent girls. In part
because they likely face the challenge of living in two
cultures, their culture of origin or their parents culture of
origin (immigration or ancestry) and the majority culture.
As a result, Caribbean Black adolescent girls may choose
to identify as either a Black American (closely identified
with African Americans), an American (with some dis-
tancing from African Americans), or an ethnic identity
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J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
reflecting their parents national origins such as Jamaican
or Haitian (Waters 1994). The type of identity Caribbean
Black adolescent girls develop likely influences the extent
to which they adopt body ideals in terms of personality
characteristics or fixed physical attributes. Accordingly, it
is important to consider ethnic subgroup differences within
the Black population that may influence early pubertal
timing effects on girls behavioral and emotional problems.
The Current Study
To clarify the nature of the relation between early pubertal
timing and behavioral and emotional problems in Black
adolescent girls, the independent influence of both per-
ceived pubertal timing and age of menarche on external-
izing behaviors and depressive symptoms is examined.
This study contributes to the existing literature by exam-
ining whether ethnic subgroup membership moderates the
predictive effects of pubertal timing on externalizing
behaviors and depressive symptoms among a nationally
representative sample of African American and Caribbean
Black girls. To date, no study has examined the moderating
effects of ethnic subgroup membership on associations
between pubertal timing and Black adolescent girls
adjustment.
The hypothesized dynamic relationships are presented in
the path diagram in Fig. 1. Perceived pubertal timing was
assumed to be positively associated with externalizing
behaviors and depressive symptoms (see paths a, b). Age of
menarche was also seen as directly influencing the outcome
variables (see paths c, d). Lastly, we hypothesized that
ethnic subgroup membership would moderate the effects
of perceived pubertal timing and age of menarche on
Perceived
Pubertal a Externalizing
Timing Behaviors
b c
Age of d Depressive
Menarche Symptoms
e f g
h
Ethnicity
Fig. 1 Theoretical model of the hypothesized relations between
ethnicity perceived pubertal timing, age of menarche, externalizing
behaviors and depressive symptoms
J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406 1397

externalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms (see parent; later-generations are the children of US-born par-
paths eh). ents with at least one first-generation grandparent; see
Based upon prior research, girls who perceived their Jackson et al. 2004 for more details).
development as either early or late were expected to report The present study uses data from the female adolescents
significantly higher levels of externalizing behaviors and in the NSAL-A (n = 607). The sample consists of 412
depressive symptoms compared to girls who perceived African American and 195 Caribbean Black girls ages
their development as on-time. We also hypothesized that 1317 years old (M = 15 years; SD = 1.40). Ninety-
girls who reported an early age of menarche would report seven percent of the sample was enrolled in school. The
significantly higher levels of externalizing behaviors and median education level of the samples mothers was
depressive symptoms compared to girls who reported their 12th grade (SD = 2.22). The mean family income was
age of menarche as on-time and late. Finally, perceived approximately $38,000 (SD = 39,936.55). Contingency
pubertal timing and age of menarche were hypothesized to table and analysis of variance were performed to examine
have stronger predictive effects on externalizing behaviors potential differences between African American and
and depressive symptoms for Caribbean Black compared to Caribbean Black girls on social and demographic infor-
African American girls. mation provided by the adolescent and the adult respondent
for the household in which the adolescent lived for the year
prior to the adult interview; see Table 1. Caribbean Black
Method girls were significantly older than African American girls.
The last grade completed for Caribbean Black girls was
Participants significantly higher than the last grade completed for
African American girls. Other significant findings included
The analysis used data from the National Survey of Caribbean Black girls being more likely to have more
American Life Adolescent sample (NSAL-A). The NSAL-A parents born outside of the United States (77%) compared
is a supplemental sample of 1,170 adolescents (52% to African American girls (3%). No other statistically
female) who were attached to the adult households from significant differences were found on the social and
NSAL. The NSAL is a nationally representative household demographic information.
survey of 3,570 African Americans, 1,621 Blacks of
Caribbean descent, and 891 non-Hispanic whites aged Measures
18 years and older (Jackson et al. 2004). The adolescent
sample was drawn only from the African American and Pubertal Development
Caribbean Black households. Every household that inclu-
ded an adult participant in the NSAL was screened for an Adolescents were asked to describe the extent of their
eligible adolescent living in the household, and adolescents physical maturity by responding to two questions: (1)
were selected using a random selection procedure. If more
Table 1 Social and demographic information of study sample by
than one adolescent was eligible for the study, up to two
ethnicity
adolescents were selected based on the sex of the first
selected adolescent. It should be noted that African M (SE) Statistics
(F)
American is used in the both the NSAL and NSAL-A to Caribbean Blacks African Americans
describe people who self-identified as Black but did not (n = 195) (n = 412)
identify ancestral ties to the Caribbean. Caribbean Blacks Age at time 15.54 (0.17) 14.93 (0.07) 10.59*
are people who self-identified as Black and indicated that of
they were from a country included on a list of Caribbean interview
area countries presented by the interviewers or specified (years)
that at least one of their parents or grandparents was born in Last grade 10.13 (0.19) 9.51 (0.08) 8.54*
completed
a Caribbean area country. Although definitions for gener-
Maternal 12.69 (0.51) 12.40 (0.11) 0.31
ation status are variable and can include categories such as education
mixed parentage to refer to those who have both US- (years)
born and non-US-born parents or 1.5 generation to refer Family 37,842.62 (3,879.13) 38,350.71 (2,430.31) 0.01
to non-US-born individuals who arrived to the U.S. at a income ($)
young age (Portes and Rumbaut 2001), NSAL defined first- Data have been weighted to be nationally representative. Standard
generation as non-US-born and number each subsequent errors have been adjusted for sampling stratification, clustering and
generation born in the U.S. sequentially (second-generation weighting of the data
are the US-born children of at least one first-generation * p \ .05

123
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How advanced would you say your physical development
is compared to other girls your age? and (2) How old
were you when you had your first menstrual period?
Measures based on this approach have been used in
numerous studies on physical development (Carter et al.
2009; Morris and Udry 1980; Udry et al. 1986) and typi-
cally have been found to be highly correlated with more
detailed measures based on direct physical observations.
Perceived Pubertal Timing (Overall)
Perceived pubertal timing (overall) was measured using
Question 1. Adolescents responded to this question on a
5-point scale, ranging from 1 (I look younger than most) to
5 (I look older than most). Higher numbers indicated greater
perception that ones pubertal development was earlier rel-
ative to same sex and same age peers. Studies have demon-
strated reasonable confidence in the reliability and validity of
youths perceptions of their pubertal timing (Dubas et al.
1991; Graber et al. 1997) using a single item. Graber et al.
(1997), for example, found acceptable test-retest reliability
of girls perceived pubertal timing over 1-year (r = 0.61).
Age of Menarche
Age of menarche was measured using Question 2. Ado-
lescents responded to this question either by providing the
age of their first menstrual period or by indicating that they
had never had a menstrual period. Of the total sample, 578
girls reached menarche and indicated a specific age of
menarche. Although previous research (e.g., Bisaga et al.
2002) has defined Early and Late pubertal timing as The CES-D12 yields a total score that can range from 0 to
two standard deviations below or above the relative dis-
tribution of age at menarche within the total sample, this
studys analyses used age of menarche as a continuous
construct rather than imposing artificial cutoff values that
lose information contained in the continuous nature of the
construct. We recoded age at menarche so that higher
scores indicated earlier maturation. We coded zero for girls
who had not reached menarche at the time of assessment
an indication for very late menarcheal development.
Twenty-nine girls (17 African Americans and 12 Caribbean
Blacks) indicated they had not reached menarche (18 of the
29 girls were 13 years old, 1 was 14 years old, 8 were
15 years old and 2 were 17 years old). Other studies have
demonstrated that adolescent girls tend to be accurate in
reporting their menstrual age (e.g., Caspi and Moffitt 1991;
Graber et al. 1997).
Externalizing Behaviors
The externalizing behavior construct was measured using
adolescent-reported symptoms of oppositional defiance
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J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
disorder (ODD) as defined in a modified adaptation of
the World Health Organization Composite International
Diagnostic Interview (CIDI; Kessler et al. 1998). The ODD
section includes 11 symptoms indicating how often during
the preceding year the adolescent displayed negativistic,
hostile, and defiant behaviors such as arguing with adults,
defying or refusing to comply with rules, often being angry
and resentful, and deliberately annoying others. Adoles-
cents responded either Yes (1) or No (0). The items were
summed to construct a scale of externalizing behaviors
which ranged from 0 to 11, with scores 3 or more indi-
cating high involvement in externalizing behaviors. Pre-
vious studies have found the CIDI to have good
psychometric properties with youths as young as 15 years
old (Andrews and Peters 1998). The CIDI was modified
from the original version to accommodate youths aged
13 years or older for the NSAL (Kessler et al. 2009). In the
present sample, the coefficient alpha (weighted) for African
American and Caribbean Black girls were 0.81 and 0.67,
respectively.
Depressive Symptoms
Adolescents were administered the 12-item version of
the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale
(CES-D; Radloff 1977; CES-D12; Roberts and Sobhan
1992). The CES-D is a well-validated and widely used self-
report instrument developed to measure symptoms of
depression within community samples. Adolescents
responded to each question on a 3-point scale, ranging from
0 (rarely or none of the time) to 3 (most or all the time).
36, with scores 9 or more indicating high depressive
symptoms. The CES-D 12 has been shown to have ade-
quate reliability and validity (Roberts et al. 1991; Roberts
and Sobhan 1992), and a coefficient alpha of 0.64 has been
reported for a sample of African American adolescents
(Roberts and Sobhan 1992). In the present sample, the
coefficient alpha (weighted) for African American and
Caribbean Black girls were 0.69 and 0.77, respectively.
Control Variables
Four variables were used as covariates in the study anal-
yses: adolescents age, maternal education, parents nativ-
ity status, and family income. Income is coded in dollars.
Missing data for family income was imputed using Answer
Tree in SPSS by NSAL statisticians prior to the release of
the data. Missing data from income was imputed for 773
cases (12.7% of the total NSAL sample). Adolescents were
asked their age at the time of the interview in years. Family
income, maternal education, and nativity status were
assessed based on information provided by the adult
J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
respondent for the household in which the adolescent
lived for the year prior to the adult interview. Four levels
of family income were derived: 1 = $ 017,999; 2 =
$1831,999; 3 = $3254,999, and 4 = $55,000 and
higher. Maternal education (i.e., number of years of school)
ranged from 0 to 17 years. Parents nativity status was
assessed by: 1 = born in the United States and 0 = born
outside of the United States.
Procedure
The NSAL was part of the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology
Surveys initiative that included three nationally repre-
sentative surveys: the NSAL, the National Comorbidity
Survey Replication, and the National Latino and Asian
American Study (Colpe et al. 2004). The NSAL provides a
comprehensive study of Black Americans with an emphasis
on mental disorders, stressors, and risk/resilient factors
(Jackson et al. 2004). The NSAL received institutional
review board approval from the University of Michigan
and was administered by the staff of the Survey Research
Center at the University of Michigan. Data were collected
from February 2001 to June 2003.
Most of the adolescent interviews were conducted face-
to-face using a computer-assisted instrument in their
homes, and approximately 18% were conducted either
entirely or partially by telephone. The interviewers were
trained at the Survey Research Center at the Institute for
Social Research at the University of Michigan, and they
went through four interviewer training sessions over the
course of 14 months. The African American adolescent
interviews averaged 1 h 40 min in length, and Caribbean
Black adolescent interviews averaged 1 h 50 min.
Respondents were paid $50 for their participation in the
study; the overall response rate was 80.6% (80.4% for
African Americans and 83.5% for Caribbean Blacks). We
conducted secondary data analysis using data from the
female adolescents (n = 607).
Data Analysis Plan
The NSAL-A employed a stratified and clustered sample
design. Sampling weights were created to adjust for vari-
ation in probabilities of selection within households, non-
response rates for households, and non-response rates for
individuals. The weighted data were post-stratified to
national population distributions for sex (males and
females) and age (13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 years) subgroups
among Black youth. We conducted weighted analyses
using Mplus 5.1 (Muthen and Muthen 19982007). To were missing. Missing data bias was assessed by first com-
calculate the complex design-based estimates of variance,
the robust maximum likelihood estimator [Huber (1967)
1399
and White (1982) sandwich estimator; to make the chi-
square test and standard errors robust to non-normality;
Carroll et al. 1997] using Full-Information Maximum
Likelihood (FIML) estimation to account for missing data
was used.
Path analysis was used to examine the hypothesized
relationships among age of menarche, perceived pubertal
timing (overall), depressive symptoms, externalizing
behaviors, and ethnic subgroup membership. Ethnicity was
reflected in the model by a dummy variable scored as
1 = African Americans and 0 = Caribbean Blacks. In the
model, both Perceived Pubertal Timing and Age of Men-
arche scores were mean centered to avoid problems with
multicollinearity and to make the coefficients more inter-
pretable (Jaccard et al. 1990). Two product terms were
entered into the model to examine whether ethnic subgroup
membership moderated the effects of perceived pubertal
timing and age of menarche on girls depressive symptoms
and externalizing behaviors: (1) Ethnicity X Perceived
Pubertal Timing and (2) Ethnicity X Age of Menarche. The
mean centered scores for Perceived Pubertal Timing and
Age of Menarche were used to create the two product
terms. Depressive Symptoms was represented in the model
by the total score of the CES-D 12. Externalizing behaviors
was represented in the model by the total sum of CIDI
ODD symptoms.
Prior to the study analyses, the data for the continuous
variables were evaluated for multivariate outliers by
examining leverage indices for each individual and defin-
ing an outlier as a leverage score four times greater than the
sample mean leverage. Seventeen outliers were identified
and checked for accurate coding. There were no coding
errors and the 17 outliers proved to be inconsequential for
the analysis (i.e., all major conclusions remained intact
when they were omitted from the analyses). Results
reported include the outliers. An additional set of outlier
analysis was pursued using model based outlier analysis
with a limited information approach in which the endoge-
nous variables were regressed onto relevant predictors and
then standardized dfbetas were examined for each indi-
vidual. An outlier was defined as any individual with an
absolute standardized dfbeta greater than 1 for a given
coefficient. No outliers were found based on this analysis.
Examination of univariate indices of skewness and kurtosis
revealed no absolute skewness values greater than 1.08, but
one value of kurtosis greater than 2.0 (3.55 for the measure of
maternal education). There were small amounts of missing
data, occurring sporadically and never exceeding more than
4% of the cases for most key study variables. Forty-one per-
cent of the cases for maternal education (a control variable)
puting a dummy variable reflecting the presence or absence of
missing data for each variable in the model. This dummy
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variable was then correlated with all other variables in the Table 3 Bivariate correlations for key study variables for African
model. No meaningful or significant bias was observed in any American and Caribbean Black adolescent girls
instance. As noted earlier, the Huber (1967) and White (1982) 1 2 3 4
sandwich estimator was used because of the missing data and
1. Perceived pubertal timing -0.17* 0.24** 0.18*
non-normality present in the data.
2. Age of menarche -0.15** -0.02 -0.03
3. Externalizing behaviors -0.01 0.01 0.44**
Results 4. Depressive symptoms 0.00 0.04 0.25**
Coefficients above the diagonal are for Caribbean Black adolescent
Descriptive Analyses girls and those below the diagonal are for African American ado-
lescent girls
Table 2 presents means and standard errors for the study * p \ .05, ** p \ .01
variables by ethnic subgroup membership. The mean age of
menarche for Caribbean Black and African American girls dummy coding with $55,000 and higher as the reference
was 12.11 and 11.98, respectively. Statistically significant group), parents nativity status (a dummy variable scored
differences were found for perceived pubertal timing as 1 = 1 or more parents born in the United states and
(p \ 0.05). Fifty-one percent of the Caribbean Black girls 0 = 1 or more parents born outside of the United States),
and 31% of the African American girls perceived their and maternal education in years were included in the model
overall development as early compared to other girls their as covariates for all endogenous variables, (2) all exoge-
age. Twenty-four percent of the Caribbean Black girls and nous variables were correlated, and (3) adolescents age
42% of the African American girls perceived their overall was correlated with all exogenous variables. The model
development as about average compared to other girls was statistically just identified and yielded a good fit to the
their age. Twenty-six percent of the Caribbean Black girls data. More focused tests of fit revealed no theoretically
and 27% of the African American girls perceived their meaningful or sizable modification indices, nor were any of
overall development as late compared to other girls their the absolute standardized residuals larger than 1.96.
age. Caribbean Black and African American girls did not To test competing hypotheses about the effect of
differ significantly on externalizing behaviors and depres- pubertal timing (i.e., the stage termination and social
sive symptoms (Table 3). deviance hypotheses), polynomial regression methods were
used that added both quadratic and cubic terms as potential
Path Analysis predictors to all cases where a given maturation variable
was predicting an endogenous variable. In no case did the
A variant of the theoretical model in Fig. 1 was tested, cubic terms yield a statistically significant result, nor did
differing from it in the following ways: (1) adolescents any of the quadratic terms when the cubic terms were
age in years, family income (dummy variables using dropped from the linear equation. Path coefficients for the
model appear in Fig. 2.
Table 2 Means and standard errors of key study variables for pub- The Ethnicity X Perceived Pubertal Timing product
erty and internalizing and externalizing behaviors term was significantly associated with Externalizing
M(SE) Statistics Behaviors (B = -0.50; p = 0.033; 95% CI = -1.10 to
(F) 0.10). Perceived pubertal timing effects on externalizing
Caribbean Blacks African Americans
behaviors were moderated by ethnic subgroup member-
(n = 195) (n = 412)
ship. Because a score of 0 on the Ethnicity variable in the
Age of 12.11 (0.12) 11.99 (0.07) 0.38 model corresponds to Caribbean Black girls, the regression
menarche coefficient associated with Perceived Pubertal Timing is
Perceived 3.17 (0.04) 2.98 (0.05) 8.65* the effect of Perceived Pubertal Timing on Externalizing
pubertal
timing
Behaviors for Caribbean Black girls (0.53; p = 0.004; 95%
CI = 0.06 to 1.01): For every one unit Caribbean Black
External 3.23 (0.26) 2.69 (0.23) 0.59
behaviors girls perceived their development to be earlier than their
Depressive 8.50 (1.25) 9.12 (0.31) 0.63 peers, externalizing behaviors was predicted to increase
symptoms 0.53 scale units on the externalizing behavior measure. For
Data have been weighted to be nationally representative. Standard
African American girls, the effect of Perceived Pubertal
errors have been adjusted for sampling stratification, clustering and Timing on Externalizing Behaviors was 0.03 (p = 0.83;
weighting of the data 95% CI = -0.36 to 0.42). The effect for Ethnicity
* p \ .05 approached standard levels of significance (mean

123
J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406 1401

-0.96 (-0.28)*
Ethnicity Externalizing 0.95
* Behaviors
(0 .17)*
0 .5 3
Perceived 0 2)
(0.

1)
4
Pubertal 0. 0

.0

**
( -0

5)
Timing

03

.1
( -0
.
-0

50
.
-0
Age of
Menarche 0. 2
1(
0.0
7)

-0
.
30
0.

( -0
Ethnicity X Age of

51

.0
(0
Menarche

6)
.1
- 0 .3 1

1
)
(-0.0
6 )

Ethnicity X Perceived -0.57 (-0.11) Depressive

Pubertal Timing Symptoms 0.97

Fig. 2 Path coefficients of the effects of perceived pubertal timing
and age of menarche on blackgirls externalizing behaviors and
depressive symptoms. Note: Standardized path coefficients are in
parentheses; *p \ .10; **p \ .05. Data have been weighted ti be
nationality representative. Path coefficients have been adjusted for
sampling stratification, clustering and weighting of the data.
Exogenous variables are correlated although curved arrows are not
shown. Adolescent age in years, maternal education in years, family
income, and parents nativity status are included as covariates
although not shown. Adolescent age is correlated with all exogenous
variables although curved arrows are not shown

difference = -0.96; p = .10; 95% CI = -2.47 to 0.56);
Caribbean Black girls, on average, engaged in more
externalizing behaviors than African American girls.
African American and Caribbean Black girls reports of
age of menarche were not significantly related to exter-
nalizing behaviors and depressive symptoms.
Supplemental Analysis
To address the possibility that the theoretical model is an
amalgam of completely different structural models as a
function of ethnic subgroup membership, a multigroup
solution strategy was pursued with African American and
Caribbean Black adolescent girls representing the two
groups. The model in Fig. 1 (minus the ethnicity dummy
variable and product terms) was tested with no equality
constraints across groups to establish a common model
form in the two groups (i.e., the unconstrained model).
While this does not establish significant differences in the
model parameters, it allowed insight into how consistent
the model fits for both groups. The model was statistically
just identified and yielded a good fit to the data. More
focused tests of fit revealed no theoretically meaningful or
sizable modification indices, nor were any of the absolute
standardized residuals larger than 1.96. This analysis
demonstrated that the proposed theoretical model was
acceptable for both African American and Caribbean Black
girls.
To determine whether the significant parameter between
Perceived Pubertal Timing and Externalizing Behaviors
was significantly different between African American and
Caribbean Black girls, this path was constrained to be
equal across groups (i.e., constrained model). The com-
parative fit of the unconstrained model to the constrained
model was performed using a scaled difference v2 test
(Satorra and Bentler 1999). The difference in fit between
the unconstrained model in which all the parameters were
freely estimated simultaneously across groups and the
constrained model in which the path coefficient between
Perceived Pubertal Timing and Externalizing Behaviors
was restricted shows whether that specific path is moder-
ated by ethnic subgroup membership. The scaled v2 dif-
ference test (X2 diff (15) 26.15, p \ 0.05) was statistically
significant. This result leads us to reject the null hypothesis
that the path coefficient between Perceived Pubertal Tim-
ing and Externalizing Behaviors is equal for African
American and Caribbean Black girls. The relationship
between perceived pubertal timing and externalizing
behaviors was significantly stronger for Caribbean Black
girls than it was for African American girls.
Discussion
The link between early pubertal timing and girls behav-
ioral and emotional problems has been established mainly

123
1402
in samples of European Americans (see Connolly et al.
1996; Ellis 2004, for reviews). If early pubertal timing is a
problematic event, as suggested by the Stage Termination
Hypothesis, then early developing Black adolescent girls
should manifest evidence of this crisis because they tend to
be the earliest to develop compared to other girls from
different racial and ethnic groups (Biro et al. 2010;
Herman-Giddings et al. 1997). Given the inconsistent
findings among studies using samples of Black adolescent
girls, we sought to clarify the nature of the relationship
between early pubertal timing and behavioral and emo-
tional problems within this population. This study con-
tributes to the existing literature by examining pubertal
timing effects using different pubertal indicators (i.e.,
perceived pubertal timing and age of menarche) within the
same study and by using a nationally representative sample
of African American and Caribbean Black girls.
Our findings highlight the importance of including both
girls perceived pubertal timing and girls ethnic subgroup
membership when interpreting timing effects on Black
adolescent girls behavioral and emotional problems. Spe-
cifically, our findings demonstrated significant effects of
early pubertal timing on girls externalizing behaviors using
perceived pubertal timing as an independent indicator, not
age of menarche. Our failure to find a significant link
between age of menarche and girls externalizing behaviors
and depressive symptoms is consistent with previous studies
that examined either perceived pubertal timing and age of
menarche within the same study (Carter et al. 2009; Michael
and Eccles 2003) or only age of menarche (Hayward et al.
1999). Thus, for Black adolescent girls, the onset of men-
struation does not appear to be an important predictor of their
symptoms of behavioral and emotional problems.
It has been documented that the consequences of
increasing body fat during puberty may not be as negative
for Black adolescent girls (e.g., Parker et al. 1995; Siegel
et al. 1999). Siegel, et al. (1999), for example, found that
for Latino adolescent girls, early and late pubertal timing
were associated with increased depressive symptoms,
whereas timing effects were not as pronounced for African
American and European American adolescent girls. Early
maturing Black adolescent girls often have positive feel-
ings about their bodies as they mature physically (e.g.,
OSullivan et al. 2000; Siegel et al. 1999). Thus, Black
adolescent girls are likely to be less distressed and more
welcoming of the hormonal changes and weight gain
associated with the onset of menarche (e.g., Petersen 1983;
Ruble and Brooks-Gunn 1982; Scott et al. 1989a; b). More
research is needed, however, to understand better how
important or salient menarche is to Black adolescent girls
and whether the early onset of menarche translates into a
risk for behavioral and emotional problems within this
population.
123
J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
Consistent with our expectations, perceived pubertal
timing effects on externalizing behaviors were moderated
by ethnic subgroup membership. Perceiving oneself to be
experiencing pubertal changes in temporal isolation from
ones peer group appears to be more pronounced among
Caribbean Black adolescent girls. Caribbean Black ado-
lescent girls who perceived their development to be early,
relative to their peers, engaged in more externalizing
behaviors than Caribbean Black adolescent girls who per-
ceived their development to be either on-time or late.
Perceived pubertal timing was not significantly associated
with African American adolescent girls externalizing
behaviors or depressive symptoms. African American
adolescent girls appear to be less vulnerable to the distress
generated by the physical and hormonal changes associated
with puberty, regardless of timing. Thus, it is possible that
there are other significant influences on girls perceptions
of their pubertal timing that were not accounted for in this
study, which lead Caribbean Black adolescent girls to see
themselves as early maturers.
Perhaps Caribbean Black adolescent girls are more
vulnerable to the distress generated by the physical and
hormonal changes associated with puberty because they
experience simultaneous biological and social challenges
that may not be experienced by African American ado-
lescent girls. Caribbean Black adolescent girls, for exam-
ple, must deal with exposure to main stream cultural values
that may conflict with their traditional culture of origin
values (Berry 1998; Gopaul-McNicol 1993). Hence, the
discontinuity between cultural values in the family and
those of the extra familial settings may create additional
stress for Caribbean Black adolescent girls who are already
struggling with the consequences of early puberty. Some
initial support for this idea stems from the work of Ge and
colleagues. For example, Ge et al. (1996) found that the
negative influence of paternal distressed moods and hostile
behaviors on daughters was more pronounced among early
developing girls than it was among on-time and late
developing girls. Thus, Caribbean Black adolescent girls
who perceived their development to be early likely expe-
rience these changes while grappling with other familial
socialization challenges.
In addition, the discontinuity between cultural values in
the family and those of the extra familial settings may
provide early maturing Caribbean Black adolescent girls
with greater opportunity to associate with deviant peers and
to engage in nonnormative activities. These behaviors
observed in older peers may appear appropriate to early
developing Caribbean Black adolescent girls given their
physical appearance, but are inappropriate given the girls
level of cognitive and coping abilities (Caspi et al. 1993;
Ge et al. 2002; Stattin and Magnusson 1990). Some ini-
tial support for this hypothesis follows from the work of
J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
Caspi et al. (1993) and Stattin and Magnusson (1990), who
suggested that the effects of pubertal timing appear to be
amplified by the social contexts in which the transition
occurs. Accordingly, contextual circumstances such as peer
groups can either facilitate or impede problem behavior
through the opportunities that the contexts provide, the
dominant behavioral norms and expectations within them,
and their implicit reward and punishment structures. Thus,
early pubertal timing may change the social context of
Caribbean Black adolescent girls, in part, from their ten-
dency to match their behavior to that of their older peers
(Caspi 1995; Caspi and Moffitt 1991).
Alternatively, African American and Caribbean Black
adolescent girls may differ in both their preparation for
puberty and responses from other individuals (parents,
teachers, peers, and other socializing agents) to their
pubertal development (Caspi et al. 1993). African Ameri-
can families, for example, may celebrate menarche as an
important milestone and may welcome this event with less
shame and stigma (Martin 1996). Hence, differences in
preparation for puberty and responses from other individ-
uals to their pubertal development may serve to assist
African American adolescent girls in a successful adapta-
tion to the bodily changes associated with puberty and their
corresponding social definition.
It is unclear whether our findings provide support for the
Stage Termination Hypothesis or the Social Deviance
Hypothesis. The Stage Termination Hypothesis posits that
cognitively and emotionally immature early maturing girls
are at the highest risk for behavioral and emotional prob-
lems; whereas the Social Deviance Hypothesis posits that
adolescents out of sync (both early and late maturation)
with the normative experiences of their peers are at risk for
deviant peer associations. Clearly, early perceived pubertal
timing confers risk for externalizing behaviors among
Caribbean Black adolescent girls in this study, but the
explanatory mechanisms are unclear. The Stage Termina-
tion Hypothesis and the Social Deviance Hypothesis are
two explanations that can guide future research on under-
ling mechanisms linking early pubertal timing to negative
outcomes among girls.
There are several study limitations that should be noted.
First, the study relied primarily on self-report to assess
perceived pubertal timing and age of menarche. Although
most studies in this area of research have used adolescent
self-report data to assess girls pubertal timing, recent
findings from Dorn, Susman, and Ponirakis (2003) dem-
onstrate that the effects of pubertal timing on adolescent
psychosocial adjustment vary depending upon who rates
the adolescents pubertal development (i.e., parent, ado-
lescent, physician). Future studies should include an even
broader source assessment approach than that used in this
study. Second, the present study was cross-sectional and
1403
causal conclusions are not possible. For example, it is
unclear whether perceived pubertal timing is causing
increased externalizing behaviors for Caribbean Black
adolescent girls who perceived their development to be
early or if early perceived pubertal timing is compounding
the difficulties faced by Caribbean Black adolescent girls
engaged in externalizing behaviors. It seems likely that
prior problem behaviors among Caribbean Black adoles-
cent girls could lead to greater externalizing behaviors in
early developing girls, not early perceived pubertal timing
per se. The alternative hypothesis would be that there is
something about early perceived pubertal timing in and of
itself that makes Caribbean Black adolescent girls vulner-
able to externalizing behaviors. To truly tease these issues
apart, further research should focus on perceived pubertal
timing and girls externalizing behavior longitudinally.
Third, the time of reference in the two pubertal timing
questions used is different. Perceived pubertal timing may
refer to the present; whereas age of menarche may refer to
the past or to an event that is not yet relevant. Although
reporting on ones perception of their pubertal timing
leaves more room for interpretation on the part of the girls
than direct inquiry regarding the onset of menarche, there
is also potential for individual concerns to influence a girls
assessment of their onset of menarche. Research has
demonstrated that girls affective response to menarche is
related to how prepared the girls felt for the event (Ruble
and Brooks-Gunn 1982). Thus, a girl might report an early
age of menarche not only because it reflects her status
relative to other girls with the same chronological age, but
also because it reflects her lack of developmental readiness
for menarche. Thus, it is possible that other factors not
measured in this study could have accounted for the vari-
ance when interacting with both measures of pubertal
timing. More research is needed to examine the ways in
which the physical and hormonal changes associated with
puberty are made meaningful to girls.
Despite these limitations, this study highlights the
complexity of the relationship between early pubertal
timing and Black adolescent girls psychosocial adjustment
when different pubertal indicators and moderation models
are considered. To date, no study on associations between
pubertal timing and Black adolescent girls adjustment has
evaluated potential ethnic subgroup effects. This focus is
important because our results demonstrate the importance
of contextual factors that can either facilitate or impede
early pubertal timing effects through the opportunities and
cultural norms and expectations that have relevance to
Black adolescent girls social interactions. Thus, adjust-
ment problems associated with adolescence such as exter-
nalizing behaviors are not inevitable, and are informed, in
part, by social and cultural contextual factors. The chal-
lenge for future research is to account for the mechanisms
123
1404
through which early pubertal timing produces the ethnic
subgroup differences observed in this study. More impor-
tantly, such research can inform preventive intervention
efforts with possible social and cognitive avenues to pre-
venting early developing girls from developing emotional
and behavioral problems during adolescence.
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1406
Author Biographies
Rona Carter is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of
Psychology and Institute for Social Research at the University of
Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in applied developmental psychol-
ogy at Florida International University, Miami, Florida. Her research
explores how social-cultural contextual factors and wider social
systems exacerbate or ameliorate the risks associated with pubertal
timing.
Cleopatra Howard Caldwell is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of
Public Health at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D.
in social psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
Michigan. Her research focuses on social relationships and social
supports within African American communities, including factors
influencing adolescent risk behaviors and psychological well-being.
Niki Matusko is a Research Area Specialist for the Program for
Research on Black America at the Institute for Social Research at the
123
J Youth Adolescence (2011) 40:13941406
University of Michigan. She received her BA in mathematics with a
concentration in statistics from the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan. Her work focuses on data management and data
analysis of the National Survey of American Life: Adolescent
supplement, the Family Connections data, and the Caribbean data.
Toni Antonucci is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the
University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in life-span devel-
opmental psychology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.
Her research focuses on social relations and health across the life
span, including multigenerational studies of the family and compar-
ative studies of social relations across the life span in the United
States, Europe and Japan.
James S. Jackson is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at
the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in social
psychology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. His
research focuses on issues of racial and ethnic influences on life
course development, attitude change, reciprocity, social support, and
coping and health among blacks in the Diaspora.
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