title: Early menarche, depressive symptoms, and coping strategies.
abstract: During the time around menarche, young women must make many emotional and social adjustments to adapt to a new life stage. We compared depressive symptomatology and coping strategies between early and average maturer Mexican adolescents girls. The relationships between elapsed time since menarche and both depressive symptomatology and coping strategies were also studied. Three hundred eighty post-menarcheal students from 11 to 15 years completed the Children's Depression Scale and the Children's Situational Coping Scale. Early maturers showed more depressive symptoms than their peers, but they reported having used fewer non-productive coping strategies. Early maturers who experienced menarche one to three years previously reported more non-productive coping strategies than those who had experienced menarche four to six years ago. However, no differences were found in the results of the average maturers depending on the time elapsed since menarche. These findings are discussed in light of the psychosocial context of early maturers.
authors.affiliation: Coordination of Psychophysiology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 3004, Col Copilco-Universidad, Del. Coyoacán, 04510, México D.F., Mexico; Institute of Psychological Research, Universidad Veracruzana, México, Av. Dr. Luis Castelazo Ayala s/n Col. Industrial Ánimas, C.P. 91190 Xalapa, Ver., Mexico. Electronic address: alcalahv@yahoo.com.mx.
authors.forename: Verónica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Alcalá-Herrera
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychological Research, Universidad Veracruzana, México, Av. Dr. Luis Castelazo Ayala s/n Col. Industrial Ánimas, C.P. 91190 Xalapa, Ver., Mexico. Electronic address: mlmarvan@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ma Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Marván
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008572:Menarche / Q000523:psychology*; D008800:Mexico
keywords: Coping strategies; Depressive symptoms; Early maturers; Early menarche; Menarche