Growth data as indicators of social inequalities: The case of Poland

Abstract

Recent studies of the effects of socioeconomic stratification on stature and age at menarche in Poland are reviewed. The data are derived from a survey of conscripts in 1976, three nationwide growth surveys in 1955, 1966, and 1978, and several surveys of the timing of menarche. The data indicate a clear social gradient in stature during childhood, youth, and young adulthood, and in the age at menarche. Individuals from the larger urban centers and small families with college-educated fathers, on the average, tend to be the tallest and to mature earliest, while those from peasant (farmers) families are at the opposite extreme in size and maturity. Also, the data show marked secular trends towards increased stature and earlier maturation. The influence of social variables underlying the socioeconomic stratification, i.e., income, family size, education, occupational status, and urbanization, are discussed relative to their effects on growth and maturation of Polish children.Since the first surveys of the statures of children and military conscripts and of menarcheal age were undertaken in Western Europe in the first half of the 19th century, it has been recognized that growth data provide a good indicator of the degree of social and economic deficits suffered by the underprivileged strata in a society. Indeed, it was exactly the increasing awareness of such neglect, particularly the awareness of the dreadful condition of the working class in early 19th century Europe, that provided the main impulse for undertaking the first modern growth studies in the 1830s by Stanway, Horner, and Roberton in England, and by Villerme in France (Tanner, 1981).Although present-day industrial societies of Europe and United States are considerably different from those of 150 years ago, socioeconomic stratification is still reflected in the growth and maturation of children and youth in many such societies. Children from upper social strata, whether defined in terms of income, education, or occupational status, generally tend to be taller than their peers from lower strata at all ages, and tend to mature earlier and experience the adolescent growth spurt earlier (cf, Eveleth and Tanner, 1976). There are of course exceptions, for example, in Sweden (Lindgren, 1976(Lindgren, , 1981 and the United States (Hamill et al., 1972; MacMahon, 1973) social class differences in growth and maturation are negligible. Because the timing of the adolescent growth spurt generally varies by social class, social class differences in stature are greatest during adolescence. After adolescence, the differences are less, but usually do not disappear. A detailed analysis of the age-associated reduction of social class differences in the stature of Polish conscripts measured in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century was provided by Czekanowski (1930). The data also demonstrated marked statural differences between conscripts from gentry families and those of peasant stock, the former being significantly taller. ...

Inter-Generational Educational Advancement and Body Height

“…It is well established that a background that provides favourable living conditions with, among other things, better education, better nutrition, high-quality health care, hygiene care and a better distribution of family income, enables children to achieve taller stature compared with their peers from lower social classes Bielicki & Welon, 1982;Jedliń ska, 1985;Bielicki, 1989;Charzewski & Bielicki, 1990;Malina & Bouchard, 1991;Cieślik & Kosiń ska, 1993; Table 8. Significant values of differences between the mean body heights of female students included in Table 7 evaluated by the NIR test Łaska-Mierzejewska & Łuczak, 1993;Kromeyer et al, 1997;Bielicki, 1998a). It is also well known that social differences in body height, although they are most distinctly expressed in the case of children at the age of puberty, do not disappear even after maturity has been reached (Waliszko et al, 1980;Bielicki, 1981).…”

Changes in the BMI of Polish conscripts between 1965 and 2001: secular and socio-occupational variation

“…9,10 It was, therefore, held constant in the four socio-occupational groups by limiting the analysis to conscripts from families with one or two children.…”

Zmienność międzypokoleniowa zdolności siłowych dzieci z trzech aglomeracji Małopolski w kontekście ich rozwoju somatycznego i psychicznego

“…What is interesting is the fact that, despite a slight tendency to decrease the social difference (by a faster rate of intergenerational changes) in acquiring subsequent body height development stages, especially in social groups located lower in the social hierarchy, social contrasts are still present in many studies [4,5,6,8,25,28,29,42]. A similar phenomenon, as well as the earlier maturity of children from richer families and whose parents had higher education, took place in less industrialized countries [17,19,31,32,34,35,36,37,38,39,41].…”