The Pre-pubescent Years

The pre-pubescent years, as I have referred to them, are very interesting given that some boys are already entering puberty while others are ‘lingering’ behind. Generally speaking, most boys reach puberty after the age of 13 years (Richmond and Rogol in Nat Clin Pract Endocrinol Metab 3:338–344, 2007). Therefore this chapter can comfortably discuss 11–13 as the pre-pubescent years among boys. Certainly, in the case of the boys involved in the research for this book, it was visible that the majority had not entered puberty. Having said that, these boys were cognisant that puberty was impending and that changes were going to occur to their bodies, just as they had discussed in classes at school, as well as heard and seen among older siblings and peers.