Do teenagers "grow up" more during the summer months?

[angela146]

Physically, that is...

The way I remember it from my teenage years, boys and girls developed more over the summer than at other times of the year.

Sure, we were away from each other for three months and saw three months of change all at once, but... it still seemed like there was more than the average three months change in that time.

Now, I'm wondering the same thing all over again, with some more specific observations. I had lunch with a mother and daughter about every two weeks this summer. My husband and I have known them for several years and the daughter is now sixteen. So, over the course of time, I've seen her grow from awkward twelve-year-old to a less awkward and more adult-like sixteen-year-old.

Over the summer, I was struck by the subtle physical changes I would see in her from one lunch to the next, even though only fourteen days had elapsed. At first, I just thought it must be a difference in what she was wearing from one time to the next - perhaps she was giving more thought to her clothes and felt more free to be visible as a woman.

But that theory didn't hold up very well. There's only so much difference that wardrobe can make and, besides which, I saw her a couple of times wearing something I had seen before but looking different in it.

I mentioned it to her mom, and she said that, yeah, she's at "that age" and growing up fast, but she didn't have as much of a grasp of the specific time frame I was talking about. Naturally, she sees her daughter every day and doesn't notice the individual changes as much.

She said that she sees it more when they have to go buy clothes again because she's outgrown the stuff she bought six months ago.

Does anyone know if this is a general phenomenon? Do kids tend to have spurts of physical change over the summer more than over the winter? Is there any research that shows a correlation between season and growth/development rate?

I remember a couple of summers when I changed a lot - specifically between fourth and fifth grade (age 10) and eighth and ninth grade (age 14). When I started fifth grade, it was embarrassing to have all of the boys (and some of the men) doing double-takes when they saw my large breasts.

Ninth grade was different because it was also the transition from middle school to high school. I welcomed the changes a lot more because I was moving from the oldest grade to the youngest grade. I fit in a lot better with the junior and senior girls as an ever-present visual comparison.

But back to my question: do the warm weather, outdoor activity, fresh foods and/or lack of school stress make summer a time of greater physical growth or is it just that it is more visible?

 

[buxxxom]

I'm not positively sure about clothing sizes, but it does seem that it happens to my children with their shoes. Their school requires no open shoes, sandals, flip flops, etc. Even though I replace their shoes throughout the school year, they always seem to need not the next larger size, but a couple sizes larger when school starts back. I think it's because they don't have their feet shoved into shoes all day long.

 

[emap]

I beleive it is because there is not the stress of school, and because it is warmer. I mean dang, plants grow more during the summer when they have all that extra nutrients.

The sun is more direct light during the summer. I am sure it helps with the growth process in animals, like cats, usually cats have litters in the spring. Scientists say that is so the kitten can grow enough to survive the winter, but if you ever watch a kitten growing up, they get bigger faster in the summer, sorta stop in the winter and then fill out the following summer.