Universitat de Barcelona and Institut d'Economia de Barcelona, Spain.
9373 Bunche Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States of America.
J Health Econ. 2023 Sep;91:102797. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102797. Epub 2023 Aug 5.
We use data from a large sample of low- and middle-income countries to study the association (or "gradient") between child height and maternal education. We show that the gap in height between high- and low-SES children is small at birth, rises throughout childhood, and declines in adolescence as girls and boys go through puberty. This inverted U-shaped pattern is consistent with a degree of catch-up in linear height among children of low- relative to high-SES families, in partial contrast to the argument that height deficits cannot be overcome after the early years of life. This finding appears to be explained by the association between SES and the timing of puberty and therefore of the adolescent growth spurt: low-SES children start their adolescent growth spurt later and stop growing at later ages as well.
我们利用来自大量中低收入国家的样本数据，研究儿童身高与母亲教育程度之间的关系（或“梯度”）。我们发现，高 SES 和低 SES 儿童在出生时身高差距较小，在整个儿童期逐渐扩大，并在青春期随着女孩和男孩进入青春期而缩小。这种倒 U 形模式表明，相对于高 SES 家庭的孩子，低 SES 家庭的孩子在身高上存在一定程度的追赶，这与身高缺陷在生命早期之后无法克服的观点部分相悖。这一发现似乎可以用 SES 与青春期和青少年生长突增时间的关联来解释：低 SES 儿童的青春期生长突增开始较晚，生长停止的年龄也较晚。
