Aussie Parents to “Puberty Talk” at Eight

Recently released recommendations have urged parents to discuss the changes of puberty with their children as early as eight.

The recommendations follow a study that showed 40% of girls were experiencing puberty from the age of eight.

The study, which consisted of more than 4000 Australian children, was undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The results were quite startling, showing that by eight years old, around 20% of boys, as well as 40% of girls, were showing signs of puberty.

But 10-11, this had increased to 52% of boys and 73% of girls. These signs included things like body hair, skin changes and adult body odour.

So it is true that children are entering puberty younger than ever, and parents should be aware of this, particularly of the fact that girls generally start puberty a year earlier than boys.

AIFS Associate Professor Dr Ben Edwards said parents should be paying attention to the data, which was useful to their parenting strategy.

“Parents are often reticent about having ‘the chat’ but this is an issue parents need to look out for from grade three or four onwards,” he told The Advertiser.

Interestingly, the data, which will be presented at the AIFS conference in July, showed that children who did not have their biological fathers present in their lives were more likely to have early signs of puberty in comparison to their same age peers. Researchers put this down to a coping mechanism in the body.

“When fathers are absent, there tends to be lower levels of income and more hardship,” Dr Edwards said. “The body reacts in bringing on puberty as a survival mechanism”.

Dr Edwards also noted that it was important that parents keep a close eye on their children around this time, particularly if they’re more mature than their peers. The study found that children who entered puberty earlier had lower wellbeing, poorer education outcomes and generally worse school functioning.

“It may be these children are teased about their development by their peers and parents need to be aware of this,” Dr Edwards said.

Parents who went into puberty early themselves should also be aware that the start of their children’s puberty is directly linked to their own.

Have you had the puberty talk with your kids yet?