Pubertal development is associated with many psychosocial and interpersonal changes, including a dramatic rise in appearance-related victimization. Yet, it is unclear what aspects of pubertal development provoke victimization along with which, and when, youth are at heightened risk. The present study seeks to address this gap by examining the effect of pubertal asynchrony (i.e., temporal variation in an individual’s pubertal milestones) on appearance-related victimization and by determining whether associations between asynchrony and victimization differ by sex and pubertal status. In follow-up analyses, associations between pubertal asynchrony and different typologies of victimization were also assessed. Participants included 373 youth (M_age = 13.51 [1.62]; 40% girls, 60% boys; 61% White) drawn from an online sample. The results showed that more pubertal asynchrony was associated with more appearance-related victimization, especially for girls, but associations did not differ across pubertal status. Latent profile analyses of appearance-related victimization further suggested that asynchronous youth were more likely to be in profiles characterized by high appearance-related victimization as well as those characterized by high height-based victimization (boys only). The findings suggest that pubertal asynchrony contributes to appearance-related victimization in adolescence and highlights the need for targeted intervention efforts related to pubertal development and specific typologies of victimization.

青春期发育与许多社会心理和人际关系变化有关，包括与外表相关的受害急剧增加。然而，目前尚不清楚青春期发育的哪些方面会引发受害，以及哪些青少年以及何时处于更高的风险中。本研究旨在通过检查青春期异步（即个体青春期里程碑的时间变化）对外表相关受害的影响，并确定异步和受害之间的关联是否因性别和青春期状态而异，从而解决这一差距。在随访分析中，还评估了青春期不同步与不同受害类型之间的关联。参与者包括来自在线样本的 373 名青年 （M_年龄 = 13.51 [1.62];40% 女孩，60% 男孩;61% 白人）。结果表明，更多的青春期异步与更多与外表相关的受害相关，尤其是对于女孩，但不同青春期状态的关联没有差异。外表相关受害的潜在概况分析进一步表明，异步青年更有可能处于以高外表相关受害为特征的概况中，以及以高身高受害为特征的特征（仅限男孩）。研究结果表明，青春期异步导致青春期与外表相关的受害，并强调了与青春期发育和受害的特定类型相关的有针对性的干预工作的必要性。