Later puberty could help explain lower grades among boys

Pubertal maturation appears to be correlated with exam scores in school and may help explain sex-differences in educational achievement, a recent study has found.

Drawing from the British population-based Twins Early Development Study, researchers looked at scores of 13,477 twins at age 16 years. Puberty was assessed according to age at menarche, growth spurt using a height-based proxy, and the Puberty Development Scale (PDS).

Earlier puberty correlated with better academic performance both in boys and girls across all pubertal indicators. The only exception was when using age at menarche as an indicator of pubertal development, which was associated with worse exam scores.

Comparing grades between sexes showed that boys performed 0.23-standard deviation units worse than girls. This discrepancy could be explained in part by differences in pubertal timing. For example, height at age 12 years mediated 28 percent of the sex effect on academic achievement, while PDS scores at 16 years of age mediated 36 percent.

Taken together, puberty indicators could mediate 56 percent of sex differences in academic achievement. After adjusting for social background and individual characteristics, pubertal factors still explained 40 percent of the sex differences in academic achievement.

“To benefit all individuals, interventions should target risk factors that exist independently of sex. These risk factors are bound to be more common among boys, but all members of society could benefit from having a well-educated population,” the researchers said.