American girls are showing signs of puberty or sexual organ maturity sooner than experts estimated, and more Black girls show evidence of that development earlier than White girls, according to a newly released study.
The study, which analyzed data from more than 17,000 girls between ages 3 and 12, found that 48.3 percent of Black girls show secondary sexual characteristics, such as pubic hair and/or breast development, between their 8th and 9th birthdays. Only about 14.7 percent of White girls show the signs at that age.
The study also found that between girls' 7th and 8th birthdays, 27.2 percent of Black girls have pubertal development while 6.7 percent of White girls show development.
Dr. Aleta Clark, a Chicago pediatrician, tells Jet that parents shouldn't be alarmed when their daughters begin to show pubertal development earlier than previously expected. "The thing that's important is knowing that it's normal," she points out.
She cautions against confusing "normal" development and "abnormal" development. She says that normal development might be early, but probably only show one sign, such as developing breasts. "If there are a lot of changes that seem to be rapid," she says, it might be abnormal.
Dr. James L. Phillips, senior associate dean and professor of pediatrics at Baylor University in Houston, TX, says people should not read too much into this study.
"I think they are making much to do about nothing," he tells Jet. He points to the percentage of girls used in the study. About 9.6 percent were Black, and 90.4 percent were white.
He also says that the study shows that only one sign of pubertal change is occurring, and that's not a big deal.
"We've seen girls who may have very slight breast development at age 3, 4, 5 or 6," he says. "Nothing else happens."
He says the main thin., that counts is is the individual really starting her menstrual period early?" And the answer to that is not very different from what experts thought.
The study says that while signs of puberty are appearing at an earlier age, the average age at which American girls begin to menstruate is 12.5 years, which has not changed significantly over the past 40 years.
COPYRIGHT 1997 Johnson Publishing Co.
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