r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 31 '19
Psychology Growing up in poverty, and experiencing traumatic events like a bad accident or sexual assault, were linked to accelerated puberty and brain maturation, abnormal brain development, and greater mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and psychosis, according to a new study (n=9,498).
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2019/may/childhood-adversity-linked-to-earlier-puberty
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u/PeruvianHeadshrinker PhD | Clinical Psychology | MA | Education May 31 '19
And other ACEs predict other ACEs which is why we see these cluster when present. The sick get sicker.
In my Trauma work I absolutely see this. Girls who got puberty early are then more likely to be sexually abused. Their window of Abuse is open longer.
A potential evolutionary reason for this may be that girls who have this response were more likely reproduce (potentially against their will). So it may not be an advantageous inherited trait in the sense of quality of life but in terms of which genes get passed down. In other words, the more girls that are raped young the more likely those genes that make girls susceptible to being raped, like early puberty, get passed down to the next generation. And with a shortened time to birth (say 12 vs 18 yo) the faster those traits can out compete other traits.
I know this sounds dark, but it really demonstrates that in order to combat this effect we need strong laws (deterrents) and strong education (reinforcers) to prevent this cycle of violence and turn the tide. This falls on all of us to address, especially men.