Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Growth

A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Growth reports the findings of a longitudinal study of the growth of 200 schoolboys and 100 schoolgirls through the course of adolescence. As well as height and weight, about a dozen other physical measures were studied or related to each other and to the staging of sexual characteristics. These values are analysed according to both the chronological age and age based on a common pubertal characteristic of peak height velocity. The range of magnitude and timing of pubertal events is described and compared for boys and girls. These recent data are compared with previous European and North American longitudinal studies, notably those of Tanner conducted over 20 years ago. In addition new information is provided which contrasts growth of two large cohorts of boys in different geographical and social settings, and compares the growth patterns of thin and exogenously obese subjects and of early and later maturers.