The effect of female height on reproductive success is negative in western populations, but more variable in non-western populations

American Journal of Human Biology

Volumn 24, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 486-494

  Stulp, Gert ^a   Verhulst, Simon ^a   Pollet, Thomas V ^a   Buunk, Abraham P ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN   (Netherlands)

^b ROYAL NETHERLANDS ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; BODY HEIGHT; CHILD; CHILDHOOD MORTALITY; FEMALE; FERTILITY; HUMAN; LONGITUDINAL STUDY; MARRIAGE; REPRODUCTION; SOCIAL CLASS; UNITED STATES;

ADULT; BODY HEIGHT; CHILD; CHILD MORTALITY; FEMALE; FERTILITY; HUMANS; LONGITUDINAL STUDIES; MARRIAGE; REPRODUCTION; SOCIAL CLASS; WISCONSIN;

EID: 84862131344     PISSN: 10420533     EISSN: 15206300     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.22252     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Allal N, Sear R, Prentice AM, Mace R. 2004. An evolutionary model of stature, age at first birth and reproductive success in Gambian women. Proc Biol Sci 271: 465-470.
2. Bailey SM, Garn SM. 1979. Socioeconomic interactions with physique and fertility. Hum Biol 51: 317-333.
3. Borgerhoff Mulder V. 2000. Optimizing offspring: the quantity-quality tradeoff in agropastoral Kipsigis. Evol Hum Behav 21: 391-410.
4. Bresler JB. 1962. Maternal height and the prevalence of stillbirths. Am J Phys Anthropol 20: 515-517.
5. Brush G, Boyce AJ, Harrison GA. 1983. Associations between anthropometric variables and reproductive performance in a Papua New Guinea highland population. Ann Hum Biol 10: 223-234.
6. Buunk AP, Park JH, Zurriaga R, Klavina L, Massar K. 2008. Height predicts jealousy differently for men and women. Evol Hum Behav 29: 133-139.
7. Buunk AP, Pollet TV, Klavina L, Figueredo AJ, Dijkstra P. 2009. Height among women is curvilinearly related to life history strategy. Evol Psych 7: 545-559.
8. Byars SG, Ewbank D, Govindaraju DR, Stearns SC. 2010. Evolution in health and medicine Sackler colloquium: natural selection in a contemporary human population. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:1787-1792.
9. Camilleri AP. 1981. The obstetric significance of short stature. Eur J Obstet Gyn R B 12: 347-356.
10. Casey BM, McIntire DD, Leveno KJ. 2001. The continuing value of the APGAR score for the assessment of newborn infants. N Engl J Med 344: 467-471.
11. Cavelaars AEJM, Kunst AE, Geurts JJM, Crialesi R, Grötvedt L, Helmert U, Lahelma E, Lundberg O, Mielck A, Rasmussen NK, Regidor E, Spuhler T, Mackenbach JP. 2000. Persistent variations in average height between countries and between socio-economic groups: an overview of 10 European countries. Ann Hum Biol 27: 407-421.
12. Clark PJ, Spuhler JN. 1959. Differential fertility in relation to body dimensions. Hum Nat Int Bios 31: 121-137.
13. Courtiol A, Raymond M, Godelle B, Ferdy J. 2010. Mate choice and human stature: homogamy as a unified framework for understanding mating preferences. Evolution 64: 2189-2203.
14. Deady DK, Law Smith MJ. 2006. Height in women predicts maternal tendencies and career orientation. Per Indiv Differ 40: 17-25.
15. Devi MR, Kumari JR, Srikumari CR. 1985. Fertility and mortality differences in relation to maternal body size. Ann Hum Biol 12: 479-484.
16. Ellison PT. 1982. Skeletal growth, fatness, and menarcheal age: a comparison of two hypotheses. Hum Biol 54: 269-281.
17. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang A-G, Buchner A. 2007. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Meth 39: 175-191.
18. Fielding R, Schooling CM, Adab P, Cheng KK, Lao XQ, Jiang CQ, Lam TH. 2008. Are longer legs associated with enhanced fertility in Chinese women? Evol Hum Behav 29: 434-443.
19. Frisancho AR, Sanchez J, Pallardel D, Yanez L. 1973. Adaptive significance of small body size under poor socio-economic conditions in southern peru. Am J Phys Anthropol 39: 255-261.
20. Hopcroft RL. 2006. Sex, status, and reproductive success in the contemporary united states. Evol Hum Behav 27: 104-120.
21. Judge TA, Cable DM. 2004. The effect of physical height on workplace success and income: preliminary test of a theoretical model. J Appl Psychol 89: 428-441.
22. Kingsolver JG, Hoekstra HE, Hoekstra JM, Berrigan D, Vignieri SN, Hill CE, Hoang A, Gibert P, Beerli P. 2001. The strength of phenotypic selection in natural populations. Am Nat 157: 245-261.
23. Kirchengast S. 2000. Differential reproductive success and body size in !Kung San people from northern Namibia. Coll Antropol 24: 121-132.
24. Kirchengast S, Hartmann B. 2007. Short stature is associated with an increased risk of cesarean deliveries in low risk population. Acta Med Lit 14: 1-6.
25. Kirchengast S, Winkler EM. 1996. Differential fertility and body build in !Kung San and Kavango females from northern Namibia. J Biosoc Sci 28: 193-210.
26. Lasker GW, Thomas R. 1976. Relationship between reproductive fitness and anthropometric dimensions in a Mexican population. Hum Biol 48: 775-791.
27. Martorell R, Delgado HL, Valverde V, Klein RE. 1981. Maternal stature, fertility and infant mortality. Hum Biol 53: 303-312.
28. McIntire DD, Bloom SL, Casey BM, Leveno KJ. 1999. Birth weight in relation to morbidity and mortality among newborn infants. N Engl J Med 340: 1234-1238.
29. McIntyre MH, Kacerosky PM. 2011. Age and size at maturity in women: a norm of reaction? Am J Hum Biol 23: 305-312.
30. Mitton JB. 1975. Fertility differentials in modern societies resulting in normalizing selection for height. Hum Biol 47: 189-200.
31. Monden CWS, Smits J. 2009. Maternal height and child mortality in 42 developing countries. Am J Hum Biol 21: 305-311.
32. Mueller WH. 1979. Fertility and physique in a malnourished population. Hum Biol 51: 153-166.
33. Mueller WH, Lasker GW, Evans FG. 1981. Anthropometric measurements and Darwinian fitness. J Biosoc Sci 13: 309-316.
34. Nenko I, Jasienska G. 2009. Fertility, body size, and shape: an empirical test of the covert maternal depletion hypothesis. Am J Hum Biol 21: 520-523.
35. Nettle D. 2002. Women's height, reproductive success and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in modern humans. Proc Biol Sci 269: 1919-1923.
36. Nettle D, Pollet TV. 2008. Natural selection on male wealth in humans. Am Nat 172: 658-666.
37. Okasha M, McCarron P, Davey Smith G, McEwen J. 2001. Age at menarche: secular trends and association with adult anthropometric measures. Ann Hum Biol 28: 68-78.
38. Özaltin E, Hill K, Subramanian SV. 2010. Association of maternal stature with offspring mortality, underweight, and stunting in low- to middle-income countries. JAMA 303: 1507-1516.
39. Pawlowski B, Koziel S. 2002. The impact of traits offered in personal advertisements on response rates. Evol Hum Behav 23: 139-149.
40. Pollet TV, Nettle D. 2008. Taller women do better in a stressed environment: height and reproductive success in rural Guatemalan women. Am J Hum Biol 20: 264-269.
41. Riebel K, Holveck M-J, Verhulst S, Fawcett TW. 2010. Are high-quality mates always attractive? State-dependent mate preferences in birds and humans. Commun Integr Biol 3: 271-273.
42. Scott EC, Bajema CJ. 1982. Height, weight and fertility among the participants of the third Harvard growth study. Hum Biol 54: 501-516.
43. Sear R, Allal N, Mace R. 2004. Height, marriage and reproductive success in Gambian women. Res Econ Anthropol 23: 203-224.
44. Shami SA, Tahir AM. 1979. Operation of natural selection on human height. Pakistan J Zool 11: 75-83.
45. Sheiner E, Levy A, Katz M, Mazor M. 2005. Short stature-an independent risk factor for cesarean delivery. Eur J Obstet Gyn R B 120: 175-178.
46. Siepielski AM, DiBattista JD, Carlson SM. 2009. It's about time: the temporal dynamics of phenotypic selection in the wild. Ecol Lett 12: 1261-1276.
47. Silventoinen K. 2003. Determinants of variation in adult body height. J Biosoc Sci 35: 263-285.
48. Silventoinen K, Lahelma E, Rahkonen O. 1999. Social background, adult body-height and health. Int J Epidemiol 28: 911-918.
49. Stearns SC. 1992. The evolution of life histories. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
50. Stulp G, Verhulst S, Pollet TV, Nettle D, Buunk AP. 2011. Parental height differences predict the need for an emergency Cesarean section. PloS ONE 6: e20497.
51. Stulp G, Pollet TV, Verhulst S, Buunk AP. A curvilinear effect of height on reproductive success in human males. Behav Ecol Sociobiol doi: 10.1007/s00265-011-1283-2.
52. Todd PM, Penke L, Fasolo B, Lenton AP. 2007. Different cognitive processes underlie human mate choices and mate preferences. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 15011-15016.
53. Wollmering E, editor. 2006. Wisconsin longitudinal study handbook. Madison: Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.