Sexual abuse may accelerate puberty in girls, says study

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Washington DC: A new study has revealed that girls, who experience physical and sexual abuse in life may accelerate early puberty.

The findings said, they are more likely to hit puberty eight to 12 months earlier than their non-abused peers, thus increasing their chances of developing depression, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy.

Researchers said, sexual abuse in particular forces the children to physically mature at a faster rate, which is linked to breast and ovarian cancers due to the increased exposure to the hormone estrogen over a longer period.

Researcher Dr Jennie Noll from Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, "Though a year`s difference may seem trivial in the grand scheme of a life, this accelerated maturation has been linked to concerning consequences, including behavioural and mental health problems and reproductive cancers".

Dr Noll explained that high-stress situations, such as childhood sexual abuse, can lead to increased stress hormones that jump-start puberty ahead of its standard biological timeline.

The study compared the pubescent trajectories of 84 females with a sexual abuse history and 89 of their non-abused counterparts.

They tracked from pre-puberty to full maturity via a system known as Tanner staging and looked at pubic hair and breast development as two separate markers for pubescent change.

The girls were placed on a numbered scale from one to five: one marked prepubescence and five marked full maturity.

The findings indicated that girls with histories of sexual abuse were far more likely to transition into high puberty eight months stages earlier than the girls not abused.

When physical maturation surpasses psychosocial growth in this way, the mismatch in timing is known as maladaptation.

They believe the findings add to the current body of work, thereby highlighting the role of stress in puberty.

The findings was conducted at Pennsylvania State University.

(With ANI inputs)