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7 - Boys at puberty: psychosocial implications
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- By Jenica Huddleston, Human and Community Development, University of California, Davis, Xiaojia Ge, Associate Professor and Associate Child Psychologist, University of California, Davis
- Edited by Chris Hayward, Stanford University, California
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- Book:
- Gender Differences at Puberty
- Published online:
- 22 September 2009
- Print publication:
- 31 July 2003, pp 113-134
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
I am pretty confused. I wonder whether I am weird or normal. My body is starting to change. I get nervous in the locker room during PE class.
Mike, age 11I am fourteen already. But I still look like a kid. I got teased a lot, especially by other guys. I am always the last one picked for sides in basketball because I am so short. Girls don't seem to be interested in me either because most of them are taller than I am.
Robert, age 14Although pubertal development in boys has fascinated people for centuries, scientific inquiry into this area did not begin until the middle of the twentieth century. Approximately a dozen well-researched articles have appeared in the past decade that provide excellent overviews on the study of psychosocial implications of pubertal changes (e.g., Alsaker, 1995, 1996; Brooks-Gunn, Graber, and Paikoff, 1994; Brooks-Gunn, Petersen, and Compas, 1995; Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990; Buchanan, Eccles, and Becker, 1992; Connolly, Paikoff, and Buchanan, 1996; Graber, Petersen, and Brooks-Gunn, 1996; Paikoff and Brooks-Gunn, 1991; Susman, 1997; Susman and Petersen, 1992). This chapter will focus on studies of the psychosocial implications of pubertal changes in boys; it will not be an exhaustive review, but, rather, will serve to highlight some of the important areas of research related to pubertal changes among boys. This chapter is structured in five sections. First, the physical and physiological changes that boys experience during puberty will be discussed.
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