MATURATION RATE AND BODY BUILD IN WOMEN1

Abstract

Three general statements may be made, with varying degrees of confidence, about female physique in relation to maturation: (a) becoming a woman, morphologically speaking, is in large part a matter of decreasing linearity in body build during adolescence; but (b) women who mature early are less slender at maturity than their later maturing peers. However, (c) this outcome is not attributable to differential growth during adolescence since such a difference in body build between these groups is apparent from childhood. For the first assertion the evidence of our senses should suffice