Project 463422

Puberty is a complex process that involves vast changes in hormones, sexual maturation, identity formation and social interactions. Scientific discoveries have been critical to understanding the onset and normative progression of puberty, its hormonal underpinnings, and its association with mental health (MH) in youth. However, despite this very promising research, puberty is recognized only very generally in public health and prevention programs, and is rarely considered in the identification of children most at risk and in program delivery. This may be due in part to the complexity of measuring pubertal development and all its components and the fact that certain aspects of pubertal development are still not well understood, especially in boys. To address this, we began to measure the puberty and social environment of children that had been followed since birth in the context of a large pregnancy cohort study (3D study). This new study aims to further measure these children's puberty, hormones, key psychosocial and social environment factors, and mental health into adolescence, a key period for the development of mental health. We can then use our data to identify which pubertal profiles and social environment characteristics are important to youth's mental health and test whether puberty and these psychosocial and social environment factors interact to increase or reduce MH problems. This will then guide how, when and for whom to aim prevention.