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Abstract

The Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) is a noninvasive measure of pubertal development. The purpose of this study was to compare means and standard deviations on the PDS across samples of seventh graders from rural Iowa and suburban Chicago who were matched on gender, age, race, and grade in school. Matched samples of boys each comprised 50 subjects; those of girls each comprised 52 subjects. Results of MANOVAs showed that rural Iowa girls were more advanced on the five markers of pubertal development than were suburban Chicago girls. Rural Iowa boys were more advanced than their counterparts in the suburban Chicago sample on four of the five markers. Psychometric analysis of the five-item scale suggested adequate internal consistency for boys and girls (.66 to .81). The predictive validity of the PDS was satisfactory. Possible reasons for differences in rates of development are discussed.

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