Why do girls mature earlier than boys?

One of the differences between the sexes has to do with our propensity to take responsibility.

It has always been said that women mature earlier than men. And the truth is that generally the female gender tends to develop earlier, starting the changes of puberty between ten and twelve years old in women while the male begins to notice them generally between twelve and fifteen years old.

This fact can be observed at the physical level, but also at the level of mental maturity. Why does this fact occur? Why do girls mature earlier than boys? To answer this question, let's start with the basics.

What do we mean by maturity?

For a better understanding of the subject to be discussed, it may be useful to clarify exactly what element we are referring to when we talk about maturity.

The term maturity refers to the moment at which a person or object has reached its maximum level of development.. Generally it tends to be linked to time and age. When most people say that one person is more or less mature than the other they tend to refer to their behavior or way of acting or responding to situations.

A mature person is capable of self-management, taking responsibility for his or her actions, adopting different perspectives, being critical, both in terms of his or her own behavior and the way he or she responds to situations.A mature person is capable of self-management, taking responsibility for his or her actions, adopting different perspectives, being critical of both the world and himself or herself, and being able to adapt to situations and respond to the demands of reality.

Maturity is reached to a great extent thanks to the experiences that each person has throughout his or her development, while this development also depends to a great extent on Biological aspects that allow it. Being mature depends to a great extent, therefore, on our brain development.

A brief introduction to brain development

Our nervous system is a set of elements of great importance for our survival from the moment we are born. However, it is not a system that remains unchanged, but one that develops and changes throughout our development.

At birth we have a large number of neurons, but they are often poorly connected to each other.but they tend to be poorly connected to each other, with relatively few synapses. From that moment and during most of our childhood, our brain is immersed in a process of constant neurogenesis, multiplying the number of neurons and establishing connections between them. This allows us to have a much greater learning potential and brain plasticity than in other periods of our life.

In this period of development, both men and women have an equivalent number of neurons and show a similar development in terms of their level of maturity.

As we live, experience, move and pay attention to our surroundings and to what we do and think, our organism strengthens the synapses in our brain, our organism is reinforcing the synapses that are most used and strengthening the connection between neuronal groups and fibers. Different areas, such as the frontal cortex, are maturing and developing more and more. But there is a moment in the course of development when neurogenesis stagnates, and a large number of neurons begin to die. This is called neuronal pruning.

• Related article, "What is synaptic space and how does it work?"

Neuronal pruning

The so called neuronal pruning or synaptic pruning is a a biological process that occurs mainly during adolescence, in which a large proportion of the in which a large proportion of the neurons present in our nervous system degrade and die.

Although apparently the fact that a large number of neurons degrade and die may seem negative, the truth is that this fact fulfills a very important function. Specifically, it fulfills the function of optimizing the functioning of our brain. eliminating those connections that we practically do not use, allowing a greater efficiency of different mental processes that have proved to be useful for the subject during its growth.

In this way, our brain gets rid of those connections that we do not use or that offer redundant information. The brain is reorganized in such a way that the most used connections survive and the processing and integration of information is allowed to continue. and allows the processing and integration of information to become more and more efficient, wasting and integration of information becomes more efficient, spending less mental resources and therefore being able to better invest those we have available.

And it is in this neuronal pruning that we find the main reason why the female sex tends to present an earlier maturity than their male counterparts. maturity earlier than their male counterparts.. Several studies show that the process of neuronal pruning begins early in women, which allows them to optimize their neural networks and in many cases reach mental maturity.

Hormonal aspects

One of the main reasons for this fact can be found in hormones. While in males sex hormones are observed in the early stages of development and then stagnate until the onset of pubertyIn females, the hormonal cycle and estrogen secretion is stable and continuous during the entire period of development. This allows for an acceleration of the timing of puberty.

The effect of the environment

Research shows that, as a general rule, women mature earlier than men. Thus, they generally develop certain cognitive and emotional abilities earlier, especially during adolescence and young adulthood.

It should also be noted that social expectations and gender roles have a powerful effect on how we act. Traditionally, gender roles have men have been educated in a way that tends to encourage competitiveness and individuality while women have been educated in a way that tends to and individuality while women have received an upbringing focused on caring for others, self-management and preservation.

This may cause them to take into account different aspects when acting, leading to different degrees of maturity. However, this effect diminishes as the typical roles fade away.

But this does not necessarily imply greater maturity on the part of the female sex. Although there is such a tendency, it must be taken into account that the level of maturity depends to a large extent on the conditions in which we grow up, external stimulation and what we experience throughout our lives.external stimulation and what we experience throughout our lives. An environment that favors maturity or one that infantilizes subjects can cause both men and women to cope more or less effectively with situations and reach different degrees of maturity at the same age.

Bibliographical references:

• Lim, S.; Han, C.E.; Uhlhaas & Kaiser, M. (2015). Preferential Detachment During Human Brain Development: Age and Sex-Specific Structural Connectivity in Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data. Cerebral Cortex, 25; 1477-1489.