Original paper
Positive influence of parental education on growth of children – statistical analysis of correlation between social and nutritional factors on children’s height using the St. Nicolas House Analysis
Martin, Lidia; Dorjee, Binu; Groth, Detlef; Scheffler, Christiane
Anthropologischer Anzeiger Volume 77 No. 5 (2020), p. 375 - 387
published: May 13, 2020
published online: May 13, 2020
manuscript accepted: Dec 2, 2019
final revised version received: Nov 29, 2019
manuscript revision requested: Nov 6, 2019
manuscript received: Oct 17, 2019
DOI: 10.1127/anthranz/2020/1177
Open Access (paper may be downloaded free of charge)
Abstract
In nature, dominance is often shown by body size; even in humans many studies report that social status is associated with body height. In today’s society, educational status is an important factor for social classification. Since growing children do not have their own educational or social status, they are often affected by the status of their parents. Therefore, the question appears, whether parental educational status measurably affects the growth of a child. If so, is this explainable by the nutritional factors? To test this hypothesis, seven different Indian data sets where reexamined using the St. Nicolas House Analysis. The results show a direct association between parental education and body height (hSDS) of the child, but there was no influence of parental education on the nutritional status. We conclude that education has a direct effect on height that is not mediated via nutrition.
Keywords
parental educational status • social classification • body height