These four questions were assessed with different response formats and were standardized and summed to provide an overall index of pubertal status (Ge et al., 2007). The internal consistency of the pubertal timing measure was .61. The relatively low internal consistency of the female index of pubertal timing may reflect the varying pace of development of different features of pubertal maturation (Ge et al., 2007). The question relating to onset of menses was not strongly associated with the other indices of development (excluding this item gave an internal consistency estimate of .66). Girls (especially older girls) may also find precise recall of their age of first menses difficult. Nevertheless, age of menses is the primary index of maturation status and was retained as part of the measure.
