Social factors and height gain of primary schoolchildren in England and Scotland

Abstract

Associations between height and certain social factors are known to persist throughout the primary school years. To discover whether the height differences between social groups are increasing or diminishing during this time, heights of 7569 English and Scottish 5 to 10 year olds measured in 1972 and 1973 were examined, together with information about number of siblings, father's social class and father's employment status. With the exception of five year old children of unemployed fathers, any increases in height differentials were no more than would be expected from the dependence of height gain on initial height. No evidence was found of absolute decrease in height differences over one year, for any of the three social factors considered, but children from larger sibships grew more than expected given their starting heights. Thus associations between attained height and social factors in five to ten year old children arise almost entirely before the age of five and do not alter appreciably during the primary school years.

Zmienność międzypokoleniowa zdolności siłowych dzieci z trzech aglomeracji Małopolski w kontekście ich rozwoju somatycznego i psychicznego

“…It can be concluded that in this case a phenomenon, also noticed in other studies, of the long-term changes is happening faster in populations that had worse development conditions in the past [17,19,31,32,34,35,36,37,38,39,41].…”

“…A similar phenomenon, as well as the earlier maturity of children from richer families and whose parents had higher education, took place in less industrialized countries [17,19,31,32,34,35,36,37,38,39,41]. This is considered a borderline of human biological adaptation.…”

Physique and family variables in university girls in Britain

“…As regards physique, however, Billewicz et al (1983) showed that in Newcastle upon Tyne adolescents at age 15 both boys' and girls' height, and particularly leg length, tended to diminish with father's occupational status and with family size. Smith et al, (1980) showed that differences of attained height by social (occupational) class and family size persisting in 5-to 10-year-old children, are already well established by age 5 years; in boys also, skinfold thicknesses and arm circumference diminished with family size. In other countries the situation varies.…”

Tendência secular em estatura: uma revisão da literatura

“…A relação entre mortalidade e a TSE Alguns estudos demonstraram que, mesmo com o declínio das taxas de mortalidade, diferenças no crescimento entre classes sociais persistem (Smith et al, 1980). Esta observação não chega a surpreender, visto ser o evento uma ocorrência comum a vários países.…”