Adolescent self-assessment of sexual maturation. Effects of fatness classification and actual sexual maturation stage

Abstract

Accuracy of self-assessed staging of sexual maturation was studied on 96 adolescents (49 boys and 47 girls) to validate previous studies and evaluate the effects of an adolescent's fatness level and actual sexual maturation stage on their ability to assess their level of sexual maturation. Correlation between the adolescents' self-assessments and physician assessments was moderately high (Kendall's tau-b = 0.65-0.82). Boys tended to overestimate, while girls underestimated their level of sexual maturation. Differences between physician and subject ratings by fatness classification or by actual sexual maturation stage was not significant. This study supports previous studies showing that adolescents can accurately assess their own stage of sexual maturation regardless of their fatness classification or actual sexual maturation stage.