Recent Growth

Recent Growth is a 7-item scale adapted from the Pubertal Development Scale (Peterson, Crockett, Richards, & Boxer, 1988) which assesses children's physical development. In a number of studies it has shown good reliability and validity (Carskadon & Acebo, 1993). Recent Growth was revised to 16-items in year 10 of this study.

Abstract: Recent Growth is a 7-item scale adapted from the Pubertal Development Scale (Peterson, Crockett, Richards, & Boxer, 1988) which assesses children's physical development. Recent Growth was revised to 16-items in year 10 of this study. Unlike other scales that assess puberty timing through physicians' direct examinations or with the aid of figure drawings or photographs, this measure relies on children's verbal self-reports. In a large, longitudinal study of children from upper-middle income families, however, the authors of this scale have demonstrated that the pattern of means among items falls in the expected order; there is satisfactory internal consistency in children's responses; there are few instances in which children report being less well developed in an area than they have reported previously; observer's global ratings or children's development were reasonably highly correlated with children's responses; and direct measures of children's peak height velocity showed the appropriate pattern of correlations with children's self-reports. Each item is answered on a 4-point scale. On this scale, a score of "1" indicates that the queried process has not started yet; a score of "2" indicates that the queried process has just started to occur; a score of "3" indicates that the queried process has definitely started to occur; and a score of "4" indicates that the queried process is complete. In their study, Peterson et al. (1988) combined all appropriate items for boys and all appropriate items for girls to form sex-specific total score scales. The boys' total score and girls' total score are a mean of the five items relevant to each sex. All "I don't know" responses were recoded as missing. For the item on the onset of menstruation, a "Yes" answer was recoded from "1" to "4," and a "No" answer was recoded from "2" to "1." This is consistent with the manner in which Peterson and her colleagues scored Recent Growth.

Who Completed this Measure?: select one

Cohort 1 - Administrative History

  • Year 05 | grade 4 | age 10
  • Year 06 | grade 5 | age 11
  • Year 07 | grade 6 | age 12
  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15

Cohort 2 - Administrative History

  • Year 05 | grade 4 | age 10
  • Year 06 | grade 5 | age 11
  • Year 07 | grade 6 | age 12
  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15

Cohort 3 - Administrative History

  • Year 05 | grade 4 | age 10
  • Year 06 | grade 5 | age 11
  • Year 07 | grade 6 | age 12
  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15

Technical Reports:

Raw Dataset Name: CyS

Scored Dataset Name: RGRySCc

Keywords:
Physical Development, Physical Growth, Puberty, Self Report

Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: No

Obtain Measure:

Adapted from Pubertal Development Scale
Anne C. Petersen, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President for Programs
WK Kellogg Foundation
Email: ACP@wkkf.org