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Life sciences · Journal article
Stress · August 15, 2026
Encouraging direction, but not yet definitive.
In a prospective cohort of 914 adolescents, earlier menarche in girls was associated with a higher cortisol awakening response at age 15.5 years, but this association emerged only after adjustment for confounders including ethnicity. No associations were observed between pubertal timing and cortisol measures in boys, and no associations were found for diurnal cortisol slope, total morning cortisol, or total daily cortisol output in either sex.
Prospective longitudinal cohort study. 914 participants from ALSPAC, a UK birth cohort; 54.70% female; enrolled prospectively from birth with follow-up through adolescence.. Intervention: Earlier pubertal timing (menarche in girls, voice breaking in boys). Compared with: Later pubertal timing. n = 914. United Kingdom (ALSPAC study).
In girls, earlier menarche was associated with higher cortisol awakening response (b = −.003; 95% CI = −.007, −.0004), significant only after confounder adjustment No associations were observed between pubertal timing and cortisol outcomes in boys No associations found for diurnal cortisol slope, total morning cortisol, or total daily cortisol output in either sex
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The finding that early-maturing girls exhibit elevated cortisol awakening response in middle adolescence may contribute to understanding HPA axis dysregulation in this group and could inform stress-related mental health risk stratification. However, the sex-specific finding and confounder-dependent significance limit immediate clinical generalizability.
Prospective cohort study with adequate sample size showing a specific association between early menarche and cortisol awakening response in girls, but limited by cross-sectional cortisol measurement, modest effect size, and no effect in boys.
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Quoted from the source exactly as published.
The finding that early-maturing girls exhibit elevated cortisol awakening response in middle adolescence may contribute to understanding HPA axis dysregulation in this group and could inform stress-related mental health risk stratification. However, the sex-specific finding and confounder-dependent significance limit immediate clinical generalizability.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
The pubertal development stage is associated with mental health. One explanation is that the pubertal stage is linked to changes in hypothalamic‒pituitary‒adrenal (HPA) axis activity. However, no study has investigated the prospective association between pubertal timing and HPA axis activity, measured by cortisol, in middle adolescence. Using data from 914 individuals (54.70% female) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), the current study sought to determine whether pubertal timing across the ages of 8-15.5 years (measured by menarche for girls and voice breaking for boys) was associated with diurnal cortisol slope, the cortisol awakening response, total morning cortisol, and total daily cortisol output at the age of 15.5 years. In girls, earlier menarche was associated with higher (logged) cortisol awakening response (b = -.003; 95% CI = -.007, -.0004), but the association was significant only after adjustment for confounders, especially ethnicity. No associations were observed in boys.
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