The Emotional Maturity of Pre- and Post-Menarcheal Girls

The aim of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that early developing adolescent girls have a less favorable attitude towards school than late developers. The Ss were 104 grammar school girls of mean age 14 years 1 month. All Ss were given Fitt's test of attitude towards school. Twenty-two pairs of early and late developers, matched for chronological age, IQ, and social class, were compared with regard to their mean attitude score and their responses to individual items of the attitude scale. The early developers were found to have a significantly less favorable mean attitude score. There was also a tendency for more early developers to endorse unfavorable items and for more late developers to endorse favorable items.