In order to resolve the pubertal status versus timing issue, studies would need to follow girls through puberty to the end to examine whether there are long lasting effects of early puberty on risk for depression.

AIM 1: To examine the association between timing of puberty and depressive symptoms / depression in girls in late adolescence.

AIM 2: To examine the association between early puberty in girls and alcohol use.

AIM 3: To examine the association between depressive symptoms in girls during adolescence and risk for alcohol misuse.

AIM 4: To examine the longer-term impact of early puberty on alcohol use in young women.

We also propose to use recently identified SNPs for early puberty to investigate whether a mendelian randomisation approach will help to determine whether early puberty has a causal relationship with the outcomes.

Outcome variables: Depression, depressive symptoms and alcohol use

Variables that we proposed to examine as potential mediating variables or confounders: Self-image, body image, sexual behaviour, conduct problems, parental supervision, parent-child relationship, IQ, indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage, maternal characteristics (e.g. maternal depression).