HEIGHTS AND WEIGHTS OF DA-AN BOYS: DID SISTERS REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Abstract

This study further examined the negative association between boys’ growth and the presence of sisters within a relatively affluent community in Taipei, Taiwan. Among 596 boys born in 1976–77, differences in height and log-transformed weight were judged using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with measurement age as a covariate, and parental education level (four levels), number of sisters (0, 1, 2 or 3+) and number of brothers (0, 1, 2+) as predictors. The relative importance of birth order and sibling sex was examined among the near majority of boys with one sibling (47%, 278/596). The sibling composition variable was defined using mutually exclusive categories representing individuals with one sibling: either one older or younger brother or sister. All boys contributed information before leaving middle school at a mean age of 14·9±0·4 years SD. The results were compared with similar analyses of data for 154 of these same boys for whom measurements were available from primary school entry at a mean age of 6·4±0·3 years SD onward. Results were also compared with data for a cohort of 153 boys who entered primary school later in 1986. Results confirm that boys from the Da-an area born in the mid-1970s who did not have sisters were significantly taller (2·2–2·5 cm, p≤0·008) and heavier (3·0–3·9 kg, p≤0·016) than those with one or two sisters. However, the 26 boys with three or more sisters, most of whom were last-born, were somewhat taller than those with one or two sisters. The same curvilinear relationships in height and weight appeared both among boys as they prepared to leave middle school and among the subset also measured just after entering primary school. When numbers of sisters were statistically controlled, the presence of two or more brothers was also significantly negatively associated with mean stature, but not weight, among middle school boys. Analyses among boys with one sibling revealed that birth order was associated with mean stature, but only if the sibling was female; an older sister was associated with a greater deficit in mean stature than a younger sister. Evidence of rising educational expectations, continued declines in family size with fewer gender-related differences in numbers of siblings, and a clear secular increase in body size in this community among children entering primary school from 1982 to 1986 suggest a possible explanatory model.