The four - way interaction between NCS, stressors, pubertal status, and gender approached significance (β = −.10, p =.08), indicating that the interaction between NCS and stressors was only significant in boys who
perceived their pubertal status as high (β =.42, p =.007).
Perceived pubertal status, reflecting the subjective experience of morphological changes related to puberty (Angold and Costello 2006), may be a more sensitive moderator of NCS than age.
Next to SR - rumination and stressors, pubertal status was modestly related to depressive symptoms (β =.06, p =.03), indicating that participants reported more depressive symptoms as
they perceived their pubertal status as higher.
Moderation by pubertal status instead of age yielded slightly different results, that is, in the model with stress - reactive rumination, the relationship between negative cognitive style and depressive symptoms was stronger in adolescents who
perceived their pubertal status as high, whereas age did not moderate this relationship.
Not exact matches
Depression was associated with more mature
pubertal status and early timing (both actual and
perceived) in girls, but with less mature
pubertal status and late timing (actual and
perceived) in boys.
However, contrary to age, how
pubertal status is
perceived and reported may also be influenced by depressive symptoms.