Childhood growth and socioeconomic outcomes in early adulthood evidence from the inter-war United States

Roberts, Evan; Helgertz, Jonas; Warren, John Robert

doi:10.1080/1081602x.2022.2034658

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Ideally, one would compare identical twins, control for IQ score, and then see whether differences in height has a significant effect on their later-life outcomes. In some studies (see also Thompson & Portrait, 2023 -this issue; Roberts et al, 2023 -this issue), a sibling design is chosen to control as much as possible for shared environment.…”

Section: Independent Effects Of Heightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the city of Saint Paul (Minnesota), more than 14,000 of the original cards with names, ages, height and weight measurements were preserved. Roberts et al ( 2023 - this issue) managed to link 2499 of these cards to the censuses of 1920, 1930 and 1940. For 1940, only boys could be linked.…”

Section: The Articles In This Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, Tyrrell et al ( 2016 ) found a penalty of being overweight for both men and women, but this was less pronounced among taller men. However, in historical periods as well as in low income countries, height and weight appear to have a more uniform, positive, effects on employment and earning (Roberts et al, 2023 - this issue). In future, considering the body in three dimensions may nuance our understanding of height’s relationships to later-life outcomes.…”

Section: Conclusion: Pathways To Explorementioning

confidence: 99%

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Casting shadows: later-life outcomes of stature

Kok

Quanjer

Thompson

2023

The History of the Family

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The central question in this special issue is a relatively new one in anthropometric history: how did body height affect the life course? This raises the issue of whether such an effect merely captures the underlying early-life conditions that impact growth, or whether some independent effect of stature can be discerned. Further, the effects of height on later-life outcomes need not be linear. These effects may also differ by gender, by context (time and place), and among life course domains such as occupational success, family formation or health in later life. The ten research articles in this issue use a plethora of historical sources on individuals, such as prison and hospital records, conscript records, genealogies and health surveys. These articles employ a variety of methods to distinguish between early-life and later-life effects, between intra- and intergenerational processes and between biological and socio-economic factors. Importantly, all articles discuss the impact of the specific context on their results to understand these effects. The overall conclusion is that independent later-life outcomes of height are rather ambiguous, and seem to stem more from the perception of physical strength, health and intelligence associated with height than from height itself. This special issue also reflects on intergenerational effects of the later-life outcomes of height. As populations have grown taller, it is possible that height and later-life outcomes have formed a ‘virtuous cycle’, resulting in taller, healthier and wealthier populations. So far, however, our research offers little support for this hypothesis.

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Section: Independent Effects Of Heightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Articles In This Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion: Pathways To Explorementioning

confidence: 99%

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Casting shadows: later-life outcomes of stature

Kok

Quanjer

Thompson

2023

The History of the Family

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The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: A long‐run, global review

Schneider

2023

Journal of Economic Surveys

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This article explores how child growth has changed over the past 150 years and links changes in child growth to the recent decline in child stunting in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). The article begins by defining the four characteristics of the growth pattern in height: size at birth, size at adulthood, the timing of the pubertal growth spurt, and the speed of maturation. It then shows how these characteristics have changed over time and links these characteristics to child stunting. Stunted children are too short for their age relative to healthy standards, and their share in the population is used as an indicator of malnutrition in LMICs today. The article then surveys the literature on the causes of changes in the growth pattern and reductions in child stunting, comparing research on current LMICs with historical research on current high‐income countries (HICs) in the past. To limit the scope of the contemporary literature, I focus on explanations of the so‐called “Indian enigma:” why Indian children are shorter than sub‐Saharan African children despite India's lead in many indicators of economic development. The article closes with ideas for what historical and contemporary researchers can learn from one another.

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Childhood growth and socioeconomic outcomes in early adulthood evidence from the inter-war United States

Cited by 2 publications

References 45 publications

Casting shadows: later-life outcomes of stature

Casting shadows: later-life outcomes of stature

The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: A long‐run, global review

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