Chapter II: The Adolescent: His Characteristics and Development

Abstract

An excellent digest and appraisal of growth studies appearing during the five-year period 1950-55 was made by Krogman (50). The data from the 222 references, almost all of which reflected the cross-sectional approach, were organized around the main topics of height-weight studies, general bodily growth, body build and composition, bone growth and ossification, circumpubertal growth, and the role of diet and other physiological factors.Utilizing data obtained from the measurement of 6535 boys and girls from four Texas cities, Whitacre and Grimes (93) reported that means of the 11 measures made at one time on each subject showed, for all ages combined, and for each year of age separately, that the children from the two southern cities were larger on every measurement than those from the two northern cities. Since several expected influences (for example, differences in food consumption and in socioeconomic level) were seemingly ruled out, the authors proposed that climatic variations between the two cities be considered as possible reasons for the growth differences.Data from the California Adolescent Growth Study revealed marked individual and intra-individual differences in gross physical growth (8, 88) and in physiological development and changes (24, 57). McKee and Eichorn (57) found that correlations between rate of growth in height and weight and various basal metabolism rates were not sufficiently high to suggest a "general growth rhythm." Zuk (97) reported stable and consistent somatotype ratings on 152 subjects evaluated at ages 12, 17, and 33, growth in individual com-13 REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Vol. XXX,No. 1 ponents being somewhat more stable in females than in males. A gradual change in physique toward mesomorphy was noted for males and toward endomorphy for females. In a comparison of 28 obese and 28 nonobese girls from the upper high-school grades, Johnson, Burke, and Mayer (46) discovered that the caloric intake of obese girls was significantly less than that for nonobese girls and concluded that inactivity was apparently more important than overeating in contributing to obesity.Greulich (31) compared the physical development of a large number of American-born and native Japanese children. The former were taller, heavier, more advanced skeletally, and, during the prepubertal period, distinctly longer-legged than children in Japan. Henton (38) reported no significant differences in mean ages of first menstruation between a sample of white and Negro girls in a southern city.