title: Voice change as a new measure of male pubertal timing: a study among Bolivian adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Age at menarche is often used to measure maturational tempo in girls. Unfortunately, no parallel marker exists for boys. It is suggested that voice change has a number of advantages as a marker of the timing and degree of male pubertal development.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Traditional auxological methods are applied to voice change in order to compare differential development both between (males vs females; Tsimane vs North American; better vs worse condition) and within (voice vs height; fundamental frequency vs formant structure) populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fundamental and formant frequencies, as well as height and weight, were measured for 172 Tsimane males and females, aged 8-23. Participants were assigned to 'better' or 'worse' condition based on a median split of height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results support dramatic vocal changes in males. Peak voice change among Tsimane male adolescents occurs∼1 year later than in an age-matched North American sample. Achieved adult male voices are also higher in the Tsimane. Tsimane males in worse condition experience voice change more than 1 year later than Tsimane males in better condition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Voice change has a number of attractive features as a marker of male pubertal timing including its methodological and technical simplicity as well as its social salience to group members.
authors: Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. crhodges@umail.ucsb.edu
authors: Carolyn R
authors: CR
authors: Hodges-Simeon
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Gurven
authors: Rodrigo A
authors: RA
authors: Cárdenas
authors: Steven J C
authors: SJ
authors: Gaulin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D001838:Bolivia; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D008297:Male; D011627:Puberty; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014481:United States; D014831:Voice; D055815:Young Adult