A Psychosocial Test of the Maturity Gap Thesis

Previous tests of the maturity gap thesis incorporated one-dimensional autonomy-based measures of social maturity. We present the first test of the maturity gap thesis to incorporate psychosocial measures (i.e., temperance, responsibility, and perspective). Four delinquency and substance abuse variables from Wave 2 of the Add Health data were regressed on the following variables developed from Wave 1: relative pubertal development, relative psychosocial maturity, personal autonomy, and interactions among each (n = 4,530 participants younger than 18 and 294 older than 18). Personal autonomy lost significance when psychosocial maturity, personal autonomy, and pubertal development were included in the same model. However, psychosocial maturity did not clearly interact with either personal autonomy or pubertal development. Psychosocial maturity was associated with deviant behaviors for both males and females, above and below age 18.