RESUMO
The effects of three factors in the social environment on variation in stature were evaluated in two large samples of 19-year-old Polish conscripts, one examined in 1976 (birth cohort 1957) another in 1986 (birth cohort 1967). The factors were: A) population size of the locality of the conscript's habitation, B) occupational-educational status (OES) of the father, and C) size of the conscript's sibship. In each cohort, stature decreased monotonically with decreasing population size, decreasing paternal OES and increasing sibship size, each factor exerting a significant influence on stature even after the influences of the other two were partialled-out by analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures. However, the order of the strenght of the influences has changed from B > C > A in 1976 to C > B = A in 1986. The most notable change was the decline in the importance of factor B. The condition of being a peasant's son depressed stature less in 1986 than in 1976, but the stature-depressing effect of the condition of being a rural dweller, as well as that of coming from a large family, has not diminished. Overall, secular gains in stature among groups lowest on the statural and social scale in 1976 have been more intense than among those highest on these scales, which resulted in an attenuation of some social contrasts in stature from 1976 to 1986. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
RESUMO
On the basis of two successive surveys of 19-year-old Polish conscripts, one in 1976 and another in 1986, secular trends in stature and the relationship between stature and population size of locality of habitation were examined. In spite of the serious economic crisis in the early 1980s and a rather abrupt cessation of the trend towards earlier menarche in Poland between 1977 and 1987, the trend towards taller stature continued unabated and was intense (2.0 cm in the general population). In 1976, stature decreased systematically with decreasing population size in the following order: (1) cities over 500,000, (2) cities between 100,000 and 500,000, (3) towns between 25,000 and 100,000, (4) towns below 25,000, and (5) villages. A similar gradient persisted in the 1986 survey. In 1986, about one-half of the total statural gradient was accounted for by the gap between rural conscripts and those next on the urbanization scale, i.e., conscripts from the smallest towns, and the magnitude of this gap was unaltered during the decade. However, the rural-large city gap has declined from 3.6 cm in 1976 to 2.8 cm in 1986. The relative shortness of rural conscripts and the tallness of their large-city age peers are consistent with the pattern of social variation in stature and maturation rate observed among Polish school children and with the country's postwar economic and social history.
