to resource-related stress, and the presence of the mother's new partner may be of greater relevance than the father's absence (Ellis and Garber, 2000). Early maturation in girls and boys has been shown to be associated with delinquency, mediated by peer deviance (Caspi et al., 1993; Kirillova et al., 2008), as well as higher level of distress (Ge et al., 1996), family adversity and anxiety (Tremblay and Frigon, 2005), involving conduct and antisocial personality disorders (Graber et al., 2004) and substance use and abuse (Stice et al., 2001). Sex hormone and other sex dimorphic mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, and interactions may be expected between the processes (and underlying genes) involved.
