Interrelationships among certain measures of growth and maturation rate in boys during adolescence

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Abstract
Indices of maturity were considered in a longitudinal sample of 177 Polish boys [ages 17-21] examined at annual intervals from 1961-1972. Maturity indicators included ages at peak velocity for stature, sitting height, leg length and weight; ages at attaining 80%, 90%, 95% and 99% of adult stature; ages at attaining the median skeletal maturity scores (TW-2) characteristic of chronological ages 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 yr; and ages at attaining stages II and IV of genital and pubic hair development. Age at initiation of the stature spurt (take-off) and ages at eruption of 14, 20 and 26 permanent teeth were ascertained for only 111 boys. All intercorrelations among the developmental indicators were positive. Ordering the correlation matrix gave 3 clusters: a large central group including age at take-off and ages at all peak velocities, at genital and pubic hair stages II and IV, at attaining 90%, 95% and 99% of adult stature and at the later stages of skeletal maturity; indices of the tempo of maturation during perpubertal and/or early pubertal stages; and ages at attaining a given number of permanent teeth. Results of a principal components analysis of the ages indicated 2 principal components, the 1st accounting for .apprx. 77% of the sample variance and the 2nd for .apprx. 12%. The 1st principal component is apparently a general maturity factor, while the 2nd apparently relates to the rate of skeletal maturity during pre-adolescence.

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