Estradiol variability is associated with brain structure in early adolescent females

Abstract

One-third of adolescents are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder by age 16, with female adolescents twice as likely to experience an internalizing (i.e., depression or anxiety) disorder as their male peers. Individual differences in pubertal factors may partially underlie this disparity, potentially via the role of pubertal hormones in shaping brain development. While research has examined links between estradiol levels and brain structure, individual variation in estradiol levels has not been considered. Using longitudinal data from 44 female adolescents (baseline age M = 11.7; follow-up age M= 13.3), we examined associations between both average estradiol and estradiol variability, and b..