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A forty‐five year investigation for secular changes in physical maturation
Author(s) -
Maresh Marion M.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330360112
Subject(s) - secular variation , demography , physical development , body height , population , body weight , medicine , pediatrics , sociology
In a stable, economically‐ and educationally‐privileged population of 180 subjects observed from birth to beyond the period of maximum growth in height, no secular changes toward larger size or earlier adolescence were observed between the earlier‐born and later‐born boys or girls of the Child Research Council study series. The mid‐birthdate for the 45 years of data collection was January 1, 1940 for the girls and May 1, 1936 for the boys. With none of the mean differences significant at the 0.05 level of confidence, the earlier‐born subjects were both slightly taller and heavier from birth and, for the girls, adolescence was slightly earlier. Forty pairs of like‐sexed siblings were included in the data. Coefficients of correlation were statistically significant for birthweight and menarcheal ages for the sisters and for height and weight at the age of maximum increment of growth in height for both sexes. In 12 of the 16 pairs of sisters, the older menstruated at an earlier age than the younger.