The Relation Between Pubertal Timing And Depression:The Role Of Peer Rejection And Physical Self-concept

Depression is among the most common forms of psychological problems, with detrimental influence on the physical and psychological health of children and adolescents. Depression emerges in childhood and then increases dramatically during adolescence. Pubertal timing of youth is related to depression. However, the relation between them may vary by genders, cultures, or ethnics. Researchers have begun to focus on the interaction of pubertal timing and social context in predicting adolescent depression. According to the contextual amplification model, the interaction of pubertal processes and social contexts contributes to poor adjustment among adolescents. As stressful social environment moderates the direct relation between pubertal timing and depression, a question arises as whether it would moderate the indirect relationship. Finding of previous studies showed that early pubertal timing elicits significantly physical changes to adolescents. Girls are dissatisfied with their increasing weight coming along with early maturing, so they are easily to be caught in depression. But for boys, less depression symptoms are generated by physical change, because they are satisfied with these changes. Thus, physical self-concept may mediate the relation between pubertal timing and depression. In addition to focusing on the direct moderating role of peer rejection in the relation between pubertal timing and depression, this study also examined how would peer rejection moderate the above mentioned mediation paths.In summary, based on the contextual amplification model, the current study employed a cross-sectional design to explore the relationship of pubertal timing and depression, as well as how peer rejection moderate the direct and indirect relationship of them. Participants in this study were 1,394 seventh-graders from eight middle-schools in Jinan(mean age = 13.30 ± 0.45, 696 boys) and their mothers. Information on mother-reported pubertal timing of youths, peer-nominated peer rejection, and self-reported depressive symptoms and physical self-concept was collected. The main findings were as follows:(1) Pubertal timing could not predict depression either for boys or for girls.(2) Peer rejection moderated the direct relation between boys' pubertal timing and depression. Pubertal timing cannot influence depression when accompanied by high levels of peer rejection, and later timing was associated with high depression only when accompanied by low levels of peer rejection. However, the interaction of pubertal timing and peer rejection could not predict depression among girls.(3) Peer rejection moderated the indirect relation between boys' pubertal timing and depression. The later path of boys' pubertal timing influence the depression by physical self-concept was moderated by peer rejection, that peer rejection moderated the relation between pubertal timing and depression by moderating the later of the mediate path. Notably, after controlling the physical self-concept, the interaction effect of pubertal timing and peer rejection on depression still remained for boys. Early maturing was associated with high levels of depression when peer rejection was at higher levels. However, later maturing was associated high levels of depression when peer rejection was at lower levels. Peer rejection could not moderate the indirect relationship between girls' pubertal timing and depression.