Adolescence and Developmental Psychology Practice Test

Timing refers to when puberty begins, while tempo describes how fast puberty unfolds once it starts. Across individuals, there isn’t a fixed onset age or a fixed duration for puberty. Some adolescents begin earlier, others later, and the total time from start to completion varies widely. Importantly, starting puberty earlier does not reliably predict a faster or slower progression for most people—the pace isn’t consistently tied to when it begins. So the description that there’s no specific average age at onset or duration, and no reliable relation between the age at onset and the rate of development, best captures how timing and tempo differ.