Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T09:32:32.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Influence of social class on the correlation of stature of adult children with that of their mothers and fathers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Gabriel W. Lasker  and
C. G. N. Mascie-Taylor
Gabriel W. Lasker
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
C. G. N. Mascie-Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Studies of parent–child correlations in stature require data which can be viewed as random samples of some general population and which are large enough to allow partition of the variable and evaluation of non-genetic and genetic influences. In a sample of 4336 individuals drawn from a cohort of all persons born in England, Scotland and Wales in 1 week in 1958, the correlation of statures of the males with their fathers, the females with their fathers, the males with their mothers and the females with their mothers were 0·36, 0·43 and 0·41 and 0·47 respectively at age 16 of the offspring and 0·41, 0·41, 0·47 and 0·46 respectively at age 23. Allowance for the occupational social class of the fathers lowers the correlations, but in no case by more than 5%. Allowance for the occupational class achieved by the offspring by age 23 has little effect on the correlations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 117 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boldsen, J. L. & Mascie-Taylor, C. G. N. (1990) Evidence for maternal inheritance of female height in a British national sample. Hum. Biol. 62, 767.Google Scholar
Furusho, T. (1968) On the manifestation of genotypes responsible for stature. Hum. Biol. 40, 437.Google ScholarPubMed
Garn, S. M. & Rohmann, C. G. (1966) Interaction of nutrition and genetics in the timing of growth and development. Pediat. Clin. N. Am. 13, 353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasker, G. W. & Mascie-Taylor, C. G. N. (1989) Effects of social class differences and socialmobility on growth in height, weight and body mass index in a British cohort. Ann. hum. Biol. 16, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livson, N., McNeill, D. & Thomas, K. (1962) Pooled estimates of parent-child correlations in stature from birth to maturity. Science, 138, 818.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mascie-Taylor, C. G. N. & McManus, I. C. (1984) Blood groups and socio-economic class. Nature, 309, 395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, W. H. (1976) Parent–child correlations for stature and weight among school-aged children: a review of 24 studies. Hum. Biol. 48, 379.Google ScholarPubMed
Roche, A. F. (1992) Growth, Maturation and Body Composition: The Fels Longitudinal Study 1929–1991. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Susanne, C. (1975) Genetic and environmental influences on morphological characteristics. Ann. hum. Biol. 2, 279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Welon, Z. & Bielicki, T. (1971) Further investigations of parent–child similarity in stature as assessed from longitudinal data. Hum. Biol. 43, 517.Google ScholarPubMed
Yoshida, K. (1942) On the heredity of height. Keio Igaku, 22, 535. Cited by Furusho (1968).Google Scholar