高身長のトラッキングに基づく縦断的発育パターンの検証

―児童・中学期における解析―

抄録

The hereditary character of tall height is known, but clear predictions of the tall height of a child after birth are not possible in modern science. However, while final height cannot be accurately predicted, it is thought to be possible to estimate the class level of height from the development process. This study evaluated the tracking status of tall people using the wavelet interpolation method, which was developed as a technique for longitudinal analysis, in order to explore propositions for various phenomena related to tall height by examining the development process. The subjects were 88 boys and 93 girls judged to be tall in the third year of junior high school, from among 4,922 boys and 4,685 girls for whom longitudinal data were obtained. An analysis was then conducted of the kinds of height trends shown from the first grade of elementary school. The results showed that about 90% of boys and about 80% of girls trended within the range of tall height above the mean value + 0.5 SD. This suggests that for both boys and girls, those who were tall trended in the tall height stratum from the first grade of elementary school to the third year of junior high school. The hereditary character of height has long been recognized, but this study may be taken to show for the first time that the individual differences in terms of height until the third year of junior high school are already expressed from the first year of elementary school.