Some girls' puberty age still falling, study suggests

More than a decade after researchers found that some American girls were beginning puberty as young as 7, new data show that the average age for whites and Latinas may still be in flux.

By Shari Roan,
Los Angeles Times
9:20 PM PDT, August 8, 2010

Doctors and parents were stunned when research published more than a decade ago found American girls were beginning puberty at much younger ages, some as early as 7. A new study released Sunday suggests the average age at which puberty begins may still be falling for white and Latina girls.

According to the paper, which appears in the journal Pediatrics, almost 25% of African American girls have reached a stage of breast development marking the onset of puberty by age 7, as had almost 15% of Latina girls and more than 10% of white girls.

Those percentages are significantly higher than in 1997, when a landmark study first reported that girls were beginning puberty much younger than they had in the mid-20th century. In that study, the rate of girls who had begun puberty at age 7 was, on average, 5% for whites, compared with 10.4% in the new study.

In other words, the average age of puberty onset still appears to be in flux.

(More here.)