Two related studies addressed the extent to which appearance cues affect perceptions of early adolescents' physical maturity, age, and social maturity and the degree to which perceptions of unacquainted adults and perceptions of parents and teachers correspond. Photographic slides of 6th through 9th graders were rated by unacquainted adults on 7-point rating scales of physical maturity, age, and attractiveness. Physical appearance cues were potent elicitors of age perceptions. Subsamples of these adolescents were rated by their parents and teachers on physical and social maturity. Parents', and to a lesser extent teachers', physical-maturity ratings contributed significant portions of the variance in their social-maturity ratings of the target adolescents. Unacquainted adults' ratings of attractiveness significantly correlated with their ratings of boys' physical maturity but not with the physical-maturity ratings of boys or girls by parents or teachers. Fathers' social-maturity ratings and independent attractiveness ratings of their daughters showed moderate correlations.
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