Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2018
Do psychiatrically disturbed teenagers tend to be physically immature? This paper describes an investigation designed to answer this question by formal methods and to test beliefs based on imperfect evidence. Through the development by Tanner, Whitehouse and Healy (1962) of a refined technique for the estimation of physiological maturity by measurement of skeletal age, it has been possible for an investigation to be carried out in this area with considerable confidence in the instrumentation. For the author, interest in physiological maturity was prompted by both clinical impressions and experimental findings, both of suspect validity, yet each pointing to the possibility that physiological maturation might be significantly different in normal and in disturbed adolescents.
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