The relationship between family characteristics and height in Sardinia at the turn of the twentieth century

Mazzoni, Stanislao; Breschi, Marco; Manfredini, Matteo; Pozzi, Lucia; Ruiu, Gabriele

doi:10.1080/1081602x.2016.1230509

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Estimating the extent and direction of selection biases in conscript records will allow us to improve the relevance and quality of recorded heights as an indicator of the biological standard or living. Moreover, doing so will help us to better understand variation found in heights by social groups, religion, and family composition (e.g., Kok et al 2017;Mazzoni et al 2017;Öberg 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drafting the Dutch: Selection Biases in Dutch Conscript Records in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Quanjer¹,

Kok²

2020

Soc. sci. hist.

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Conscription records are considered to be the best sources for studying heights over cohorts. This article discusses the various steps and selection mechanisms involved in the conscription system of the Netherlands, which was more or less similar to the systems found in other European countries. Starting with a birth cohort of 4,436 boys, we run a series of regressions on the likelihood to be registered at all and to have one’s height recorded. We discuss the effects of cohort attrition through mortality and migration, and explore familial, social, and religious reasons for evading registration and (medical) examination. We find various kinds of selections, but their effects on the distribution and averages of heights are limited. Thus, heights culled from conscripts records are indeed an excellent indicator of a cohort’s biological standard of living. However, researchers focusing on social variation in height need to be aware of the unequal opportunities to evade registration and measurement.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drafting the Dutch: Selection Biases in Dutch Conscript Records in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Quanjer¹,

Kok²

2020

Soc. sci. hist.

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“…The argument is mainly based on the relation between sibship size, income and nutritional dilution, crowding and the higher chances of infection in larger families (Bailey, Hatton, & Inwood, 2016;Hatton, 2017). Yet results are mixed: some studies found a significant negative effect of the number of siblings on the height of individuals (De Keyser & Van Rossem, 2017;Mazzoni, Breschi, Manfredini, Pozzi, & Ruiu, 2017;Myrskylä, Silventoinen, Jelenkovic, Tynelius, & Rasmussen, 2013;Roberts & Warren, 2017;Stradford, van Poppel, & Lumey, 2017), while others found effects which are weak or disappear over time (Beekink & Kok, 2017;Öberg, 2015;Poulain, Chambre, Herm, & Pes, 2017;Ramon-Muñoz & Ramon-Muñoz, 2017). The latter argued that the changing role of sibship size could be caused by fertility decline, the general improvement of standards of living, the development of the welfare state, and improving health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the conditional resource-dilution hypothesis: the impact of sibship size and composition on infant and child mortality in the Netherlands, 1863–1910

Riswick

2018

The History of the Family

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Child survival depends on the allocation of resources within the household. The size and composition of the sibling set influences parental division of resources and can in turn affect survival chances.In spite of recent advances in research on sibling effects, previous studies have often used the resource dilution hypothesis, which neglects the specific historical context which shapes household structure and organisation. This study therefore focuses specifically on the variation in historical context by examining sibling effects on infant and child mortality in three regions of the Netherlands in the period 1863-1910. It does so by connecting the gendered and the conditional resource-dilution model with each other as a conceptual framework. Changing household composition is taken into account by using longitudinal data from the Historical Sample of the Netherlands, time-varying variables and Cox proportional-hazard models to study sibling size and composition. The results show that the number and gender of siblings play an important role in determining child mortality, but are less significant in determining infant mortality. The number of same-sex siblings has a negative impact on boys' survival chances in the Netherlands, which suggests that after the age of one, boys experienced more competition from their brothers. The reason for this could be their assigned roles within the household and on the family farm. A negative influence of the number of sisters is only found for child mortality chances for girls in the nuclear northwest family region. Here, fewer children were needed to work inside or outside the household, and girls and boys may even have been interchangeable. The results underscore the importance of looking at the interaction between the specific historical context and gender when trying to understand how sibship size and composition influenced children's mortality risks and shaped inequality within the household. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…Daily nutrition is often thought to be one of the most important determinants to prevent and survive infectious diseases, which were more prevalent and virulent in the 19 th century (Fogel & Costa, 1997;McKeown, 1976;Preston, 1976;Rotberg & Rabb, 1985). Differences in access to food were considerable and caused differences in human stature: elite and farmer children were on average taller than their fellow countrymen, whereas children of laborers were shorter than the rest of the population (Alter & Oris, 2008;Beekink & Kok, 2017;Komlos, 1990;Mazzoni et al, 2017;Öberg, 2014;Ramon-Muñoz & Ramon-Muñoz, 2017). The relationship between parental socioeconomic status and mortality in the first five years of life seems to follow a similar pattern.…”

Section: Shared Socioeconomic Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Intergenerational transmission of longevity is not affected by other familial factors:evidence from 16,905 Dutch families from Zeeland, 1812-1962

Mourits

Berg

Rodríguez-Girondo

et al. 2020

The History of the Family

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Studies have shown that long-lived individuals seem to pass their survival advantage on to their offspring. Offspring of long-lived parents had a lifelong survival advantage over individuals without long-lived parents, making them more likely to become long-lived themselves. We test whether the survival advantage enjoyed by offspring of long-lived individuals is explained by environmental factors. 101,577 individuals from 16,905 families in the 1812-1886 Zeeland cohort were followed over time. To prevent that certain families were overrepresented in our data, disjoint family trees were selected. Offspring was included if the age at death of both parents was known. Our analyses show that multiple familial resources are associated with survival within the first 5 years of life, with stronger maternal than paternal effects. However, between ages 5 and 100 both parents contribute equally to offspring's survival chances. After age 5, offspring of long-lived fathers and long-lived mothers had a 16-19% lower chance of dying at any given point in time than individuals without long-lived parents. This survival advantage is most likely genetic in nature, as it could not be explained by other, tested familial resources and is transmitted equally by fathers and mothers.

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The relationship between family characteristics and height in Sardinia at the turn of the twentieth century

Cited by 16 publications

References 44 publications

Drafting the Dutch: Selection Biases in Dutch Conscript Records in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Drafting the Dutch: Selection Biases in Dutch Conscript Records in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Testing the conditional resource-dilution hypothesis: the impact of sibship size and composition on infant and child mortality in the Netherlands, 1863–1910

Intergenerational transmission of longevity is not affected by other familial factors:evidence from 16,905 Dutch families from Zeeland, 1812-1962

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