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Family composition and age at menarche : findings from the International Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study

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Steppan_2019_RH_Familycomposition_CC.pdf (1.476Mb)
Date
05/12/2019
Author
Steppan, Martin
Whitehead, Ross David
McEachran, Juliet
Currie, Candace Evelyn
Keywords
Age at menarche
Psychological and psychosomatic problems
Family structure
Body mass index
Life history theory
Pubertal timing
BF Psychology
HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
3rd-DAS
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Abstract
Background Early menarche has been associated with father absence, stepfather presence and adverse health consequences in later life. This article assesses the association of different family compositions with the age at menarche. Pathways are explored which may explain any association between family characteristics and pubertal timing. Methods Cross-sectional, international data on the age at menarche, family structure and covariates (age, psychosomatic complaints, media consumption, physical activity) were collected from the 2009–2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The sample focuses on 15-year old girls comprising 36,175 individuals across 40 countries in Europe and North America (N = 21,075 for age at menarche). The study examined the association of different family characteristics with age at menarche. Regression and path analyses were applied incorporating multilevel techniques to adjust for the nested nature of data within countries. Results Living with mother (Cohen’s d = .12), father (d = .08), brothers (d = .04) and sisters (d = .06) are independently associated with later age at menarche. Living in a foster home (d = −.16), with ‘someone else’ (d = −.11), stepmother (d = −.10) or stepfather (d = −.06) was associated with earlier menarche. Path models show that up to 89% of these effects can be explained through lifestyle and psychological variables. Conclusions Earlier menarche is reported amongst those with living conditions other than a family consisting of two biological parents. This can partly be explained by girls’ higher Body Mass Index in these families which is a biological determinant of early menarche. Lower physical activity and elevated psychosomatic complaints were also more often found in girls in these family environments.
Citation
Steppan , M , Whitehead , R D , McEachran , J & Currie , C E 2019 , ' Family composition and age at menarche : findings from the International Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study ' , Reproductive Health , vol. 16 , 176 . https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-019-0822-6
Publication
Reproductive Health
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-019-0822-6
ISSN
1742-4755
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Description
This research was funded by The University of St Andrews and NHS Health Scotland.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19079

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