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Season of birth contributes to variation in university examination outcomes
Author(s) -
Fieder Martin,
Prossinger Hermann,
Iber Karoline,
Schaefer Katrin,
Wallner Bernard,
Huber Susanne
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.20539
Subject(s) - season of birth , hum , demography , reproduction , seasonal breeder , personality , variation (astronomy) , epidemiology , developmental psychology , psychology , biology , medicine , zoology , ecology , social psychology , sociology , history , physics , performance art , astrophysics , art history
Epidemiological studies show that birth season influences a wide range of biological parameters such as growth, reproduction, mental illnesses, dyslexia, personality, and success in school. The present study is aimed at examining birth season's relationship to examination marks achieved at a university in a very large contemporary sample of male and female undergraduate students. We find that female university students born in spring and summer achieve better marks than those born in autumn and winter. Male students born in spring receive worse marks than those born in other seasons of the year. Furthermore, we find a birth‐week periodicity in examination results of female students, with highest examination results for those born in May. We suppose that biological mechanisms might explain part of the observed effects. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:714–717, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.