Reflection Blog 6

I found the Article “Teens Before Their Time” and chapter 8 to be interesting. I liked learning about what kinds of outside pressures can speed up or slow down puberty. The article talks about environmental factors such as exposure to chemicals along with obesity to be the trigger for girls going through puberty younger. Obesity makes sense and I think that we have known this information for a long time, that fat carries estrogen, and the release of estrogen is what causes females to get secondary sex characteristics younger. The book talks about family dynamics which I thought was interesting. I didn’t really think about a harsh family life, making a child have increased stress, triggering her to mature younger. Another deciding factor of weather a girl will mature younger is the presence of a good father figure. If the girl has a good father, then she will mature at the normal rate, but if the girl does not have a good father, she will mature faster. The theory behind this is that good fathers are rare, and should a good father come along, because good fathers are rare her body wants to be ready to have children when a good father comes around.

I feel like our bodies should work the opposite way, that if you don’t have a good father then you should wait to have kids, so that you can be more mature yourself to be able to take care of your offspring, should the father bail. The theory for this is “lower quality” offspring early vs “better quality” offspring later. I am not sure I agree with our bodies evolution in this way.