On the independence of adult stature from the timing of the adolescent growth spurt

Abstract

Longitudinal studies have shown repeatedly that little or no correlation exists between the timing of the pubertal spurt in stature and adult stature (AS). However, the possibility seems to have been overlooked that such near-zero correlations may, at least theoretically, be an artefact resulting from two opposite tendencies that cancel each other out: a hypothetical “biological” tendency for early maturers to end up as slightly shorter adults and a socially induced tendency, resulting from the existence of social gradients in growth, for accelerated maturation to be accompanied by taller A.S. Data of the Wroclaw Growth Study (355 fitted growth curves) were used to see whether making a sample socially more homogeneous produces any increase in the correlation between age at PHV and AS. No such effects were found. Thus the validity of the view is confirmed that genes controlling the timing of the spurt also affect the shape of the growth curve in such a way that the shorter time available for completion of growth in the early maturers is compensated for by a greater intensity of the spurt itself.