Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin

On the question of the program for the study of socio-economic factors of the growth process in modern Russian schoolchildren

Zadorozhnaya L.V.

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia

Zadorozhnaya Lyudmila Viktorovna, Ph.D., ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3143-3226; mumla@rambler.ru

Abstract

Introduction. Numerous studies of the influence of socio-economic factors on the growth and development of children and adolescents cover a period of more than 100 years and are becoming more and more popular. The researcher faced with the problem in each specific situation to find suitable criteria for assessing the "quality of life". Over the past 25 years, the focus of researchers has shifted from characteristics directly related to the economic situation of the country, the social stratum, the family in which the child grows up, towards more synthetic, and at the same time specific, factors that more or less indirectly characterize the quality of life of the surveyed children’s families. Materials and methods. For the analysis, data on total body dimensions boys and girls 7-17 years old: body length and weight, chest girth; and according to the main socio-economic characteristics: the level of education and profession of the parents, the number of children in the family used. The value of the body mass index is calculated. A univariate discriminant analysis of the data normalized within each age and sex group was carried out (with a one-year interval, the average age is equal to an integer number of years). The statistical reliability of the differences in the average indicators for groups assessed depending on the edu-cation or profession of one of the parents, the number of children in the family, or the level of material security of the family. Results and discussion. The coefficients of correlation between socio-economic characteristics and the average values of the studied morphological characteristics by groups calculated, depending on the socio-economic characteristics. The two surveyed groups differ significantly in the socio-economic characteristics of the surveyed families. In modern Moscow, the nature of the connections between them has completely changed; accordingly, the nature of the noted statistically significant differences in the mean values of the studied morphological characteristics by groups has changed, depending on the specific socio-economic characteristics. Conclusions. The set of features describing the socio-economic status of the family of the examined child must correspond to the conditions prevailing in each specific situation, both from the point of view of information content and from the point of view of information availability.

Keywords

human biology; human morphology, auxology; child growth and development; rural and urban children

DOI: 10.32521/2074-8132.2021.4.072-080

Цит.: Zadorozhnaya L.V. On the question of the program for the study of socio-economic factors of the growth process in modern Russian schoolchildren // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2021; 4/2021; с. 72-80 (Published: December 22, 2021)

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