A systematic review into the role of pubertal timing and the social environment in adolescent mental health problems.

Individual differences in pubertal timing confer risk for mental health problems in adolescents. Identifying modifiable environmental factors that influence these risk pathways is key for informing interventions. The current systematic review focused on the postnatal social environment to address this goal, specifically investigating mediation and moderation pathways. 122 articles were identified that met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings provided support for adolescents with early pubertal timing being generally vulnerable to mental health problems as a result of increased experience of negative social environments. Studies investigating moderating pathways were more common than those investigating mediation pathways, with micro-level environments (e.g., peers, parents) more commonly implicated than macro-level environments (e.g., socioeconomic status). Far less research was present in males compared to females, with some evidence that late maturing males may also be sensitive to negative environmental factors. Findings also highlighted racial and ethnic differences in the association between pubertal timing and mental health, but primarily within the context of other environmental factors. Thus, moving forward, more research is needed that investigates the dynamic interplay across different (micro- and macro-level) negative and positive social contexts to gain a complete picture of pathways influencing pubertal risk for mental health problems in adolescents.