The Transition To Adolescence In Girls: Conscious And Unconscious Experiences Of Puberty.

This study investigates whether puberty triggers regression and inner turmoil as suggested by psychoanalytic theory, or is simply a milestone in an essentially smooth course of development, as suggested by research on normal youngsters. Questionnaires and projective tests were used to examine both the conscious and unconscious experiences of regression, anxiety, and self-image across the stages of puberty in 74 normal 7th and 8th grade girls. Pubertal age, determined both by menstrual status and by the subjects' self-ratings on drawings of Tanner's Pubertal Age Scale, defined the groups. Regression in both ego structure and drives was examined. Structural (ego) regression was measured on the Rorschach with Blatt's Concept of the Object Scale; drive regression was assessed by scoring subjects' early memories for primary psychosexual stage. Spielberger's STAIC was used to assess conscious anxiety, while Elizur's Rorschach Scale provided a measure of unconscious anxiety. Self-image was studied by means of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire. Overall, the results support a model of pubertal development marked by regression in psychosexual level and in aspects of ego functioning, but without the stress, anxiety or inner turmoil described in the psychoanalytic literature. Specifically, menarche triggers regression to pre-Oedipal modes of object relations, with a marked increase in anal themes and in oral nurturant longings for the fantasied good mother. Regression also occurs in areas of ego functioning, notably in the post-menarcheal girl's difficulty maintaining a concept of the other as a whole and benevolent object. There were no differences between the pre-pubertal and pubertal girls in anxiety or overall self-image. These findings indicate that puberty does trigger drive and ego regression in normal girls. However, the healthy child's ego, combined with the sense of inner security provided by the fantasy of the good mother, modulates the disruptive effect of this regression, and protects the normal girl against the storm and stress described in the clinical literature.PhDClinical psychologyPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127654/2/8402270.pd