2002; Magnusson, Stattin & Allen, 1985) and boys (Orr & Ingersoll, 1995; Lall, Singhi, Gurnani, Singhi & Garg, 1980; Graber et al., 1997; Michaud, Suris & Deppen, 2006). Evidence suggests that early maturing adolescents affiliate with an older peer group, and in doing so, engage in behaviours such as experimental substance use that are age-normative for the group but not for them (Stattin & Magnusson, 1990). Coupled with the relative lack of psychological preparedness for social challenges that early maturing adolescents are theorised to contend with, exposure to pressures to conform to peer norms may render them vulnerable to use cigarettes and alcohol. Other studies, however, have also found that late-maturing males begin to drink earlier than on-time maturing males, are more likely to abuse alcohol in early adulthood (Andersson & Magnusson, 1990; Graber et al., 1997) and to smoke more (Bratberg, Nilsen, Holmen & Vatten, 2007). Late maturing boys may use substances in adolescence as a device to gain peer approval and popularity (e.g. Bratberg et al., 2007) while problem drinking in early adulthood acts in a compensatory way for low social status among peers in the adolescent years (Andersson & Magnusson, 1990).
