Frequent Residential Relocations Cumulatively Accelerate Menarcheal Timing in a Sample of English Adolescent Girls

Abstract

Childhood adversity has been associated with accelerated menarcheal and reproductive timing in females. The relationship between family- and neighbourhood-level measures of childhood adversity, menarcheal timing and intended reproductive timing was investigated in a sample of 354 English adolescent girls. The data were collected from March to June 2012. In total 90 of the participants had reached menarche. Frequent residential relocations increased the likelihood of reaching menarche (HR 1.11; 95%CI 1.02-1.22). Girls who had moved house one to four times or five or more times, were respectively, more than twice (HR 2.14; 95%CI 1.23-3.73) and more than three times (HR 3.20; 95%CI 1.44-7.10) as likely to have reached menarche than girls who had never moved house. Frequent residential relocations were associated with stepfather co-residence, increased number of half/stepsiblings and reduced feelings of family support. Menarche was also accelerated by the presence of half/stepsisters. There was no relationship between menarcheal timing and intended reproductive timing. Frequent residential relocations may indicate instability in a young person's life, which is often outside of their control. Extending childhood adversity measures to include residential relocations could be important in better understanding the role early life events play in accelerating menarche.

Intergenerational conflicts may help explain parental absence effects on reproductive timing: a model of age at first birth in humans

“…The child may rely on other cues to parental continuity under such circumstances, such as degree to which the absent parent invests or visits, to assess the probability of parental continuity. This may explain the fact that father absences due to labor migration do not expedite adolescent’s reproduction (Shenk et al, 2013), that tense mother–father relations (Chisholm et al, 2005) and residential moves (Clutterbuck, Adams & Nettle, 2014) expedite maturation, and that the quality of paternal care matters more to pubertal timing than mere presence (Ellis et al, 1999). …”

“…Several kinds of social strains during childhood—e.g., residential moves (Nettle, Coall & Dickins, 2011; Clutterbuck, Adams & Nettle, 2014) and chronic illnesses (Waynforth, 2012)—expedite maturation and reproduction. These kinds of stressors may change a developing child’s physiological status in such a way that the child becomes increasingly susceptible to age-specific extrinsic mortality and morbidity.…”

Early-Life Adversity Accelerates Child and Adolescent Development

“…Recent work linking early-life adversity with earlier age of menarche or Tanner stage has highlighted a variety of developmental stressors. Consider evidence that exposure to trauma in the first decade of life (Lei, Beach, & Simons, 2018) and sexual abuse (but not other stressors; Magnus et al, 2018) predict earlier age of menarche, as do frequent residential moves, themselves associated with reduced feelings of family support (Clutterbuck, Adams, & Nettle, 2015). Consider next the aforementioned Sumner et al (2019) report indicating that early-life exposure to threat forecasts earlier pubertal development (using Tanner-stage measurements).…”

Early menarche: A systematic review of its effect on sexual and reproductive health in low- and middle-income countries

“…For example, recent declines in the age at menarche in low- and middle-income countries have been attributed to improved socioeconomic, health and nutritional status [24, 25]. On the other hand, in high-income countries, earlier age at menarche has been attributed to markers of lower socioeconomic conditions such as family instability, residential instability, and stressful early life conditions [25–28]. …”