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Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Tweens, Health
If you think periods are depressing as an adult, think how you'd feel if you were younger than 12. Credit: Getty
Scarlett is returning to Tara. The Red Army is marching south. The Crimson Avenger strikes.
Get it? You need to brace yourself. The forecast calls for cramping, bloating and bleeding. Bummer!
The thought of dealing with this may be bad news for many young women, but for girls younger than 12 -- who thought they had more time before having to, uh, pay the monthly bill -- it can be downright depressing.
True story. The London Daily Mail reports researchers from the University of Bristol and the University of Cambridge studied 2,184 girls, and you'll never guess what they found out. Girls younger than 12 who experience painful monthly cramping, bloating and bleeding earlier than expected often experience depression as a result.
Who knew?
The study may seem like the latest news from the Department of Duh. However, researchers also found girls' depression doesn't always go away, often lingering well into later adolescence.
Lead researcher Dr. Carol Joinson of Bristol University tells the Daily Mail that girls who reach puberty at young ages often feel isolated and ill-prepared for growing up.
"Our study found that girls who mature early are more vulnerable to developing depressive symptoms by the time they reach their mid-teens," she tells the newspaper. "This suggests that later maturation may be protective against psychological distress."
No doubt about it. Between fluctuating hormones, changes in body images, conflicts with parents and the whole boy-girl thing, adolescence is a pool you don't want to jump in too soon.
It doesn't help when Shark Week comes early.
Joinson puts it a bit more scientifically.
"The transition into puberty is a critical developmental period, associated with many biological, cognitive and social changes," she tells the Daily Mail. "These changes may have a more negative impact on girls who mature at an early age than those who mature later."
What these girls need, she adds, is help at school with family-based programs aimed at early intervention.
Joinson tells the newspaper it's unclear if a rocky start for girls down the road of adolescence leads to depression as adults. It's possible, she adds, that the symptoms of depression lessen and girls start feeling less isolated and alone.
They just start feeling human.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-10-2011 @ 9:48AM
Gail Kluge said...This is a lot of a little girl to have to deal with. Think of how we feel so cruddy. Plus, it's a lot of blood and who wants to handle that? Especially as a kid. I know there are some great little kits out
there for girls just starting their periods (or for preparing them for the soon-to-be 1st menstruation). Http://bit.ly/dailysample has one of the "Being Girl" kits for free right now. You can request it on their site. The one we just got came with several pads and liners, a couple of tampons (if that's something she is going to be using) and a travel size Secret deodorant. All of it was FREE, including shipping to my P.O. box. There also was a little leaflet with common questions about getting your period and what to expect. I wish they'd had these little kits back when I started!
Reply
1-10-2011 @ 10:41PM
Hilary F said...It's not the period that causes the depression, it's the entire physical changes of the body that go with it. The early period is just a symptom of early puberty. I got mine when I was 10 but I started developing around 9 years old. Those years were hellish. I was a total tomboy, not into the girly stuff at all; to suddenly be thrown into "womanhood" far earlier than my peers while my mother mostly turned a blind eye (except for the basics like buying a bra and deoderant for me, I mostly tried to pretend the whole thing wasn't happening until I bit the bullet and tried to figure out shaving and plucking eyebrows on my own--I went through a phase where the kids all called me "hairy beast"). I remember those years from age 10 to 14 as becoming increasingly angry, turning to depression, then anorexia at 15, then depression again at 17, finally being able to come up for air in my 20s! And always it was centred around problems with my body image and self esteem.
Parents, if I can give any word of advice, please don't turn a blind eye, as distressing as it might be to see your child's body turn into that of an adults, it's even worse for the child, who is still a child inside! They need all the support they can get.
Reply
2-28-2011 @ 5:17PM
dee said...I agree. I started developing when I was 9, had breasts by 10, and was menstruating by 11. It was a nightmare! I got picked on by the other girls because they were jealousy, and was hounded by the boys who wanted to feel me up. And when I started high school it was worse. I was the only girl in my school who was regularly asked "are those implants?". It's devestating as a child (or teen, or adult) to realize that you can't shop at the same places as your friends because you're too "developed".