Conceptualizing Puberty as a Window of Opportunity for Impacting Health and Well‐Being Across the Life Span
Abstract
We promote the perspective that puberty, a separate biological process embedded in adolescence, is a "window of opportunity" for understanding and impacting health and development. First, we include a brief overview of pubertal change. Second, we propose a critical role for puberty in shaping life span health due to its connections with early life precursors, health issues and risks emerging during puberty, and health in young adulthood and beyond. Next, we discuss the importance of puberty measures in developmental research and suggest ways to make the science of puberty an important standalone research entity, as well as an essential component of studies conducted during adolescence. Finally, we discuss measurement issues, novel theoretical models of puberty, and the necessity of adopting an interdisciplinary perspective in research on puberty and in adolescence more broadly.
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Gonadal hormones are thought to contribute to changes in neural circuits affected by anxiety during puberty.
“Human imaging studies show that neural circuits affected by anxiety change during puberty (29, 30), and gonadal hormones are thought to contribute to these changes (31).”
From Sexual differentiation of neural mechanisms of stress sensitivity during puberty (2023) · cites this paper as [31]
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Nagata, J. M., Chu, J., Ganson, K. T., Murray, S. B., Iyer, P., Gabriel, K. P., Garber, A. K., Bibbins‐Domingo, K., & Baker, F. C. (2023) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.13673 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Sexual differentiation of neural mechanisms of stress sensitivity during puberty
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- Authors
- Dorn, L. D., Hostinar, C. E., Susman, E. J., & Pervanidou, P.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
- Corresponding author
- Dorn, Lorah D.
- Venue
- Journal of Research on Adolescence
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-03
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 155-176
- ISSN
- 1050-8392 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7795
- OpenAlex
- W2922222147
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 2.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Research on Adolescence (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1327768)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Health and Behaviors
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- puberty, window of opportunity, pubertal changes, lifespan development, adolescent health, young adult health, interdisciplinary research
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent Health, Adolescent, Concept Formation, Health Promotion, Humans, Longevity, Puberty, Research, Sexual Maturation, Adolescent Development
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