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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
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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

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