Observational studyDevelopmental psychology2015
Early adversity, elevated stress physiology, accelerated sexual maturation, and poor health in females.
Observational study in Developmental psychology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 128 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning in offspring of parents with a major affective disorder: a meta-analytic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Biological aging in childhood and adolescence following experiences of threat and deprivation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2020Pooled it
- Prenatal stress accelerates offspring growth to compensate for reduced maternal investment across mammals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Pooled it
- A systematic review of adrenarche as a sensitive period in neurobiological development and mental health.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2017Pooled it
- A randomized trial of prenatal cognitive behavioral stress management effects on obstetric health outcomes and infant cortisol levels.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Trial
- Steroids, stress, and body mass index interact to accelerate female pubertal development.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2026Article
- Timing and tempo of puberty and neurodevelopment following adversity: A registered report.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sensitive windows, sensitive outcomes: Early or late-postnatal maternal separation differentially impacts puberty and behavior.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Timing matters: a prospective investigation of father absence and pubertal timing in girls and boys.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Effects of stressful life events on ART treatment outcomes: a prospective study on the role of individual and personality characteristics and psychological health conditions.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- RU 486 blocks inhibitory effect of neonatal corticosterone administration on sertoli cell proliferation in mice.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Childhood Adversity and Cardiovascular Disease; Current Knowledge and Future Directions.Current cardiology reports · 2025Review
- Fluctuating salinity during development impacts fish life histories.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Family Functioning and Pubertal Maturation in Hispanic/Latino Children from the HCHS/SOL Youth.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Coming of age in war: Early life adversity, age at menarche, and mental health.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Review
- Longitudinal analysis of cortisol changes during pubertal development in indigenous Qom girls.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2024Article
- Early life adversity accelerates hypothalamic drive of pubertal timing in female rats with associated enhanced acoustic startle.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- Mothers' prenatal distress accelerates adrenal pubertal development in daughters.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Practical solutions for including sex as a biological variable (SABV) in preclinical neuropsychopharmacological research.Journal of neuroscience methods · 2024Review
- Early life stress shifts critical periods and causes precocious visual cortex development.PloS one · 2024Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Evolutionary-minded developmentalists studying predictive-adaptive-response processes linking childhood adversity with accelerated female reproductive development and health scientists investigating the developmental origins of health and disease (DOoHaD) may be tapping the same process, whereby longer-term health costs are traded off for increased probability of reproducing before dying via a process of accelerated reproductive maturation. Using data from 73 females, we test the following propositions using path analysis: (a) greater exposure to prenatal stress predicts greater maternal depression and negative parenting in infancy, (b) which predicts elevated basal cortisol at 4.5 years, (c) which predicts accelerated adrenarcheal development, (d) which predicts more physical and mental health problems at age 18. Results prove generally consistent with these propositions, including a direct link from cortisol to mental health problems. DOoHaD investigators should consider including early sexual maturation as a core component linking early adversity and stress physiology with poor health later in life in females.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.