K. Kromeyer et al., SOCIOECONOMIC-FACTORS AND GROWTH DURING CHILDHOOD AND EARLY ADOLESCENCE IN JENA CHILDREN, Annals of human biology, 24(4), 1997, pp. 343-353
The influence of socioeconomic parameters (number of children in the f
amily, birth order of subject, professional status of the father, educ
ation of the mother) and background characteristics (birth length, bir
th weight and age of the mother at birth of the child) of growth in bo
dy height in children from 4 to 12 years of age was investigated. The
analysis is based on data from a longitudinal growth survey, which sta
rted with 207 children (98 males and 109 females) from Jena (Germany)
in 1985. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the degree
of relationship between height and the social or background factors. I
n this study no differences in growth between children of different so
cial groups were found. Variation in height of girls was mainly affect
ed by the biological factor length at birth of the child.