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The current paper critically reviews the empirical literature focused on the association between puberty and anxiety. A detailed review of more than 45 empirical articles is provided. There is some evidence that among girls, but not boys, a more advanced pubertal status (controlling for age) is associated with higher reported anxiety symptoms. Also among girls, earlier pubertal timing is linked to higher anxiety scores. It is unclear whether early puberty may lead to increased anxiety or if high anxiety influences pubertal timing. With respect to hormones, there were relatively few significant associations for girls, although this literature is very small. Among boys, several studies reported positive associations between both gonadal and adrenal hormones and anxiety. The direction of effect for these finding is also unstudied. The primary limitation of the hormone-anxiety literature pertains to the absence of pubertal measures in samples of youth in which hormones are measured. The paper concludes with a comprehensive examination of the methodological strengths and weaknesses of the literature and recommendations for future work.Keywords pubertal status; timing; hormones; anxiety; psychopathology; adolescence Anxiety disorders are among the most common forms of psychopathology in adolescence (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, & Angold, 2003) and across the lifespan, with lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders estimated to be 29% (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, & Walters, 2005). These rates are alarming, in light of the fact that anxiety psychopathology negatively impacts functioning across multiple domains (e.g., McGee & Stanton, 1990), maintains a chronic course for a significant proportion of youth affected (Orvaschel, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 1995), and increases the risk for other types of disorders (Cole, Peeke, Martin, Truglio, & Serocynski, 1998).The period of adolescence appears to be a particularly high-risk phase in terms of the onset and intensification of anxiety problems; for instance, panic attacks (Macaulay & Kleinknecht, 1989;Warren & Zgourides, 1988), social phobia (Inderbitzen & Hope, 1995), and obsessivecompulsive disorder (Rasmussen & Eisen, 1990) commonly emerge during this stage. Accordingly, researchers have called for developmentally sensitive etiologic models of anxiety *Corresponding author University of Arkansas, Department of Psychology, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR 72701, Phone: 479-575-5329, Fax: 479-575-3219, E-mail: eleenfe@uark.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptClin...

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The present cross-sectional study evaluated the associations between anxiety sensitivity, intensity of retrospectively-rated nicotine withdrawal symptoms, and motivation to quit smoking. Participants were 127 young adult (mean age 20.4 years (SD 4.6)) regular smokers (mean cigarettes per day 10.2 (SD 5.1)). Anxiety sensitivity predicted intensity of retrospectively rated withdrawal symptoms during the first week of the most recent quit attempt as well as concurrent and lifetime indices of motivation to quit smoking even after controlling for theoretically-relevant smoking (e.g. nicotine dependence) and affect (e.g. panic attack history) factors. These results are discussed in relation to better understanding panic-related vulnerability factors in smoking cessation.

Social anxiety evidences significant comorbidity with alcohol use disorders and alcohol-related problems. In an effort to better understand this co-occurrence, researchers are beginning to evaluate specific drinking-related factors, including alcohol use motives, among socially anxious individuals. Drawing upon Cooper’s (1994) four-factor model of drinking motives (enhancement, social, conformity, coping), a growing body of work suggests that socially anxious individuals may consume alcohol in an effort to cope with their anxious symptoms; however, no study to date has examined these relations among youth. Accordingly, the current study examined alcohol use motives as a function of social anxiety in a community-based sample of 50 adolescents ages 12–17 years (Mage = 16.35, SD = 1.10). As predicted, heightened social anxiety was associated with elevated coping-related drinking motives. Importantly, other alcohol-use motives did not vary as a function of social anxiety. Collectively, these findings uniquely extend research conducted with adults, and suggest socially anxious youth may be motivated to use alcohol to manage their anxious arousal.