Age at puberty in relation to age at marriage and parenthood: a national longitudinal study.
A longitudinal study of a British cohort has collected information on puberty, judged by menarcheal age for the girls and the pubertal stage of the boys at age 14 3/4. This information has now been related to the ages at which these young people married and became parents. For the young men there was evidence of a direct relationship between degree of sexual maturity at age 14 3/4 and their ages at entry into marriage and fatherhood. For the young women, if pregnancy did not intervene between menarche and marriage, there was evidence of a direct relationship between menarcheal age and marriage age. But there was no evidence that these earlier-maturing young women became mothers at earlier ages than later maturers. This arose through the later-maturing young women having shorter first birth intervals than the earlier maturers. Premarital conceptions were also more prevalent amongst the later maturers.
D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007086:Illegitimacy; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D008572:Menarche; D010290:Parents; D011627:Puberty; D012741:Sexual Maturation