Carolyn Hodges-Simeon

CAROLYN HODGES-SIMEON, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, received funding in October 2019 to aid research on “Disentangling the Effects of Energetic Availability and Extrinsic Mortality on the Timing of Puberty among Honduran Immigrants.” Pubertal timing shows wide inter-individual and inter-population variability. Previous research has shown that a wide array of early-life socioecological and physiological factors may affect the timing of puberty, yet the literature is hampered by weak theoretical organization, confounded constructs, and an over-reliance on female and Western subjects. The present research uses life history theory to organize the diverse factors that potentially influence pubertal maturation into two organizing constructs: energetic availability and extrinsic mortality. Data collection focuses on a population that exhibits interesting variation in the constructs of interest: mainland Hondurans aged 10 to 18 that have immigrated to the Honduran island of Utila. Methodologically diverse measures have been collected on: 1) the rate and timing of pubertal development; 2) energy availability; 3) cues to extrinsic mortality (e.g. history of parental presence/absence, deaths of other kin); and 4) behavioral life history strategies (e.g. risk-taking). Funding allowed the grantee to collect measures of growth and pubertal development at three timepoints for one year. Additional measures are being collected to yield five timepoints. When data collection is complete, analyses will initially focus on identifying measures that best assay energy and mortality, and then will use those measures to address the pathway to pubertal timing.