Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/224

 210

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

CONDUCT OF PUPILS OF THE GIRLS SCHOOL OF ROMANSHORN, CLAS- SIFIED ACCORDING TO ITS REAL FACTORS.

Condition

Number

Discipline

Application

Morality

Age

Good

Me- dium

Bad

Good

Me- dium

Bad

Good

Me- dium

Bad

J3 13 14 14 15 '5 16 16 17 17 18

19

without menstruat'n with " without *' with

without " with " without " with " without " with " without " with "

16

3 6

5

6 5 7

■3 I 6

3

5

I

I I

I I 3 3 I 6

I

3

I

4

4 2

4 9 I 6

5

2

I

5

5 2

5 13

I

5 3 6

I 2

3

2

3

2

The small number of observations does not make it possible to show the peculiarities of the conduct of the .girls for individual years. We can, however, observe how, in general, their regulari- ties of conduct correspond with the first years of the puberal development ; at sixteen years we do not find in either institute more than one single pronounced anomaly of conduct, while the age of fifteen still presents a relatively large number of them. After the age of sixteen there are not observed in either institu- tion conspicuous irregularities of conduct in any of its factors.

Judging from these data, it would appear that in woman the period of the maximum irregularity of conduct coincides with the period of the maximum development of the skeleton, or with the establishment of menstruation. Hence, it depends on two factors : the maximum assimilation of nutritive material on the part of the skeleton, and the agitation provoked in the cen- tral nervous system by the arrival of the impressions of the genital organs in activity of development. This second factor explains the prolonging of the period of agitation in girls even after the arrival of the accelerated development of the stature. On the whole, comparing the two sexes, the irregularities of con- duct are less frequent and less serious in girls than in boys.