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PubMed2000

Secular declines in Spearman's g: some evidence from the United States.

The Flynn Effect (J. Flynn, 1987) refers to the apparent increases in intelligence quotient (IQ) observed over the past few decades. A related phenomenon is that the variance in test scores accounted for by Spearman's g (C. Spearman, 1904) varies according to IQ level. That is, g accounts for less variance in high IQ groups than in low IQ groups. Spearman termed this variant aspect of g the "law of diminishing returns." This study extends prior research on the Flynn Effect and the law of diminishing returns by examining changes in the statistical importance of Spearman's g that may accompany secular increases in IQ. Based on the standardization data from the United States versions of the Wechsler scales (i.e., Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence, D. Wechsler, 1967; Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, D. Wechsler, 1949; Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, D. Wechsler, 1955), this study indicated that, in most cases, the statistical significance of Spearman's g has indeed declined over the past several years. A. R. Jensen (1998) suggested that the components of the Flynn Effect warrant special investigation. The present study addresses this issue, in part by analyzing the Verbal and Performance subscales of the Wechsler scales. Additionally, this study further confirms the law of diminishing returns as applicable to different ages and time periods.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

A comparison of the effects of sacred and secular music on elderly people.

Two kinds of music, sacred and secular, were played to elderly participants and rated by them on various aspects of evoked feelings. Additionally, pre- and posttest batteries of questionnaires were administered to measure the spirituality and ego integrity of the listeners. Statistical analyses of the findings failed to reveal significant effects on the spirituality of the participants, although the two kinds of music were rated differently. When results for all the music were combined, a significant and positive correlation was found between the spirituality scores of the listeners and the ratings of both kinds of music for reverence or spirituality. Most participants found the selections restful and evocative for memories and thoughtfulness. Music of the type used in this study may have potential value as an accompaniment for techniques such as life review and relaxation therapy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

Assessment of nuclear anxiety among American students: stability over time, secular trends, and emotional correlates.

Studies of reactions and attitudes toward nuclear war have progressed from the use of anecdotal evidence to multi-item psychological measures. Additional psychometric data and substantive results of the Nuclear Attitudes Questionnaire (NAQ; Newcomb, 1986) are reported here. Data from three independent samples of students from the United States collected in 1984, 1986, and 1987 were compared and contrasted. The 1986 data were obtained immediately following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Test-retest reliability of the NAQ items and subscales was quite high and comparable among samples and established the across-time stability of the measure. There were several secular trends across years on items and subscales, indicating some increased concern about nuclear power (particularly in 1986), but also a general increase in nuclear concerns, fears, and anxiety. Anticipated sex differences were found on many of the NAQ items and subscales. Correlations between the NAQ subscales and the nine SCL-90-R scales (Derogatis, 1977) were consistent for the 1986 and 1987 samples. In latent variable analyses, a general factor of Emotional Distress was significantly correlated with a general factor of Nuclear Anxiety, as well as specifically with nuclear concern and fear for the future.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Evidence for a secular increase in human brain weight during the past century.

7397 post-mortem records have been studied. These comphrhend all 20- to 50-year old men and women who had been autopsied in The London Hospital since 1907. Fresh brain weight, body weight and height were abstracted and analysed statistically according to sex and to year of birth, any person with a cerebral or skeletal abnormality having been excluded. Fresh brain weight in men increased gradually by an average of 0-66 g per year from a mean of 1372 g for those born in 1860 to 1424 g in 1940-a total of 52 g. The weight of the female brain increased by 0-28 g per year from 1242 g to 1265 g over the same period. No appreciable rise in fresh brain weight occurred in women until 1900, after which date the increase was of the same order in the two sexes. Evidence of secular increases in body height and in body weight is also given.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular changes in twinning rates in England and Wales.

The monozygotic twinning rate in England and Wales seems to have increased over the years of 1957-1977. This constitutes evidence against the suggestion that the secular decline in dizygotic twinning rates over the same period has been due to an increase in spontaneous abortion rates.

Birth Rate↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The age at menarche in Carabobo, Venezuela with a note on the secular trend.

A study of the age at menarche was conducted in the state of Carabobo as part of Project Venezuela, a National Human Growth, Nutrition and Family Survey. The study was performed during 1978 on a cross-sectional random stratified sample which included 955 girls between the ages of 9 and 20 years. Data were collected using the status quo method. The median age at menarche was estimated by logits at 12.68 0.08 for all socio-economic groups. Sexual maturation occurred earlier in girls from stratum III and later in those from strata IV and V; 12.34 0.11, 12.59 0.11, and 12.86 0.12, respectively. Small sample size did not permit comparisons with strata I and II girls. The results indicate a secular trend in the age of menarche when compared with previous Venezuelan studies. Median age for all Carabobo girls is comparable and often slightly lower than recent data from European and American studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Age at menarche and its secular trend in urban and rural girls in Poland.

Menarcheal age of 5546 Warsaw girls studied in 1976 was estimated by probit analysis as 12.73+/-0.03 SD 1.10 and of 7771 rural girls studied during 1976-1978 as 13.40+/-0.02 SD 1.20. The difference was 0.67+/-0.04. The difference between the groups from Warsaw and rural areas where fathers had only primary education was 0.57+/-0.07 year, while that between the groups where fathers had the highest education in both localities was only 0.31+/-0.09. When in both environments the groups were equated both for primary fathers' education and also number of children in the family, the differences in menarcheal age were 0.37+/-0.28, 0.49+/-0.11 and 0.47+/-0.14 in families with one, two and three children, respectively. In rural areas the effects of fathers' education on menarcheal age of daughters was much higher than in Warsaw. The secular trend from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s was 0.25 years per decade in Warsaw and 0.64 years per decade in rural areas, suggesting a decrease of social differences in maturation rate of Polish girls. Menarcheal age is sensitive to even small differences in living conditions.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular acceleration of growth in height in Japanese and its social background.

To clarify the true amount of the secular trend of growth in height in Japanese children, birth-year cohorts affected by World War II were excluded from an analysis of the trend in age of maximum increment in mean height (MI age) during the last 80 years. The cohort which experienced the war had an abnormally high maximum annual increment, asymmetry of the histogram representing the annual increments and a poor fit of the logistic function to the adolescent growth curve. The cohorts in which growth in height was under the influence of the great social changes of the war were statistically discriminated according to these three abnormalities of the growth pattern. Since the cohorts which underwent MI age just after the war showed a distorted growth, it is evident that the post-war rapid lowering of MI age for cohorts from 1934 to 1946 should be taken as a convalescent stage after the war-time repression of growth. Excluding the period affected by the war, MI age of both sexes has become earlier by some 0.2 years per decade. The variety of possible causes of the trend towards earlier maturity was investigated by making use of the post-war rapid decline of MI age. Better nutrition is not believed to be the main factor in the trend of growth. Urban population ratio and Engel's coefficient closely paralleled the decline of MI age, which indicates that the progression of urbanization as a way of life has been of prime importance.

Body Height↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular changes in age at menarche in a sample of US women.

In an epidemiological survey of the reproductive history of a large group of United States women who had given birth to at least one child, there was a secular trend in age at menarche between those born around 1920 and those born around 1940-45. The trend was linear and the increment 3.2 months (+/- 0.36) per decade. The women were White, well nourished, middle-class and resided in all parts of the United States.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An early hand-wrist atlas and its implications for secular change in bone age.

A little-known 'Skiagraphic Atlas' documenting radiographic changes in the bones of the hand and wrist was published by Poland in 1898. Nineteen skiagrams of British children, 1-17 years of age, were included. Tanner-Whitehouse-2 bone ages were assessed for 15 individuals in this series and differences from chronological ages were calculated. Mean differences for 20-bone, RUS and carpal bone ages are significantly larger than zero. Hence, these children were relatively advanced compared to present children. Comparisons of Poland's expected ages for onset and fusion of secondary ossification centres in the hand and wrist with more recent reference data indicated a secular increase in the rates of skeletal maturation of approximately 0.22-0.66 year/decade, with relatively greater change in expected ages of fusion.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular trends in stature and weight in southern Chinese children in Hong Kong.

As part of a mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal survey of Hong Kong children which commenced in 1982, 1048 children (539 boys and 509 girls) with a mean age of 12 years 7 months were measured for standing height and weight. Positive secular trends had occurred in the past two decades when the results of this study were compared with those of Chang and his co-workers who performed a survey in 1961-63. At 12 years old, boys were 6.7 cm taller and 5.7 kg heavier, while girls were 4.2 cm taller and 2.9 kg heavier than subjects in 1961-63.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular trends in the heights of women from the urban poor community of Hyderabad.

There are very few studies in India that have investigated secular trends in the heights and weights of adult women from the poorer socio-economic groups. Five hundred and twelve pairs of healthy mothers and daughters were enrolled and heights and weights recorded. The heights were not different in the two generations, but the daughters were lighter than the mothers. The number of mothers and daughters with heights under 145 cm were 35 and 34. If height corrections for mother's age is done, then it appears that the trend in this population is towards smaller size.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for a secular trend in the Negro dentition.

Metric changes in the Negro dentition were evaluated in a sample of artificial stone casts of the dental arcades of 106 living South African Negroes (56 males, 50 females) and in 100 Negro crania (50 males, 50 females) drawn from the R. A. Dart Collection. Comparison of the mesiodistal and buccolingual dimensions of these two samples to the published results of a similar study on earlier Negroes revealed a statistically significant trend towards tooth-size enlargement. This positive secular trend was found to be most pronounced in the mesiodistal diameter, with less than half of the teeth considered showing significant buccolingual enlargement. Although the trend was equally pronounced in both sexes and in both arcades, mesiodistal change was found to increase in an antero-posterior direction, while buccolingual change centred around the anterior teeth.

Black People↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The secular trend in height of primary school children in England and Scotland 1972-79 and 1979-86.

The recent secular trend in height of primary school children was estimated using data from schools participating in the National Study of Health and Growth in 1972, 1979 and 1986. About 50% of the trends from 1972 to 1979 for English and Scottish boys and girls were accounted for by changes in family size, with some contribution from increases in parental height and from birthweight, but almost none from changes in social class distribution. Estimates for 1979-1986 showed that the trend towards increased height in five-to eleven-year-old children has now ceased.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular changes in height and weight of Stockholm schoolchildren born in 1933, 1943, 1953 and 1963.

Secular growth changes of Stockholm schoolchildren born in 1933, 1943, 1953 and 1963 were studied through samples of about 2500 children in each year. Heights and weights at the ages 7, 10 and 13 years were obtained from school health records stored in the Stockholm city archives. The increase in height and weight at these ages was more marked between the children born in 1933 and 1943 than later, except for the girls aged 7, who had no increase in height. The increase in height between the later samples was at age 7 years practically none, at age 10 years about 1 cm/decade and at age 13 years 1-2 cm/decade. The body mass index (BMI) indicated a continuous trend towards a slimmer body build for Stockholm schoolchildren at the age of 7 years. At the ages of 10 and 13 years the BMI remained fairly stable for the cohorts born from 1943 to 1963.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for a secular trend in heights and weights of adults in Papua New Guinea.

Evidence for a secular change in heights and weights of adults of 13 populations in Papua New Guinea was sought by comparing data collected at two different times, using three types of source. These are: (1) values obtained from the literature; (2) previously unpublished measurements made by author; and (3) data found in the research notes of A.C. Haddon, and which were collected between 1897 and 1914. An increase in heights and weights has taken place in some, but not all, populations examined, whilst a decrease in adult body size has taken place in a smaller number of groups.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular growth changes in Zagreb schoolchildren over four decades, 1951-91.

Secular changes in growth and development vary over past decades in intensity and in trend. The purpose of this paper is to present changes in growth patterns of Zagreb schoolchildren aged 7-19 years over the past four decades. Surveys were performed in 1951, 1964, 1973, 1982 and 1991. The mean height of boys and girls in all observed groups has increased significantly over the 40-year period. Age groups up to 9 years in 1991 were 4-7.5 cm taller than their coevals in 1951. Differences increased from the age of 10 in girls and 12 in boys, reaching 10 cm in girls of 12 years and even 14 cm in boys of 14 years. They were also highly pronounced in adult height (5 cm in girls, 7 cm in boys). The most pronounced changes appeared from 1951 to 1964, while in the period from 1964 to 1973 the increase was smaller; in girls only up to 13 years, in boys to 17 years. However, between 1973 and 1982 positive changes were again significantly pronounced, especially in the older age groups. In the last period, 1982-91, the trend seemed to come to an end. Changes in average weight mostly corresponded to the height changes, being somewhat greater in boys. Moreover, in the last two periods, weight gain in older girls was smaller compared to height. Menarche in the period 1964-73 shifted to a younger age by 8 months (13.34-12.67 years), retaining the same level over the next 9 years. However, since 1982 a slight reverse trend has been noticed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Secular trends in stature in Poland: national and social class-specific.

Mean statures of Polish 19-year-old males, as estimated from large national random samples of conscripts examined at 10-year intervals, increased from 170.5cm in 1965 to 176.9cm in 1995. The average statural gain of 2.1 cm per decade is rather high compared to other European countries, although not exceptionally so. In addition, secular trends were analysed separately for each of seven selected social groups, each group comprising subjects equated for three social criteria. The rank-order of the seven groups on the statural scale has remained identical throughout the period considered, although the group-specific trends have not been strictly parallel. During the period 1965 1986 there has been a tendency for the groups lowest on the social and statural scale to diminish their statural distance from the social elite, the sons of the large-city intelligentsia, a social group consistently the tallest of all the seven groups considered. However, that tendency for the social gaps to narrow came to a halt during the last, 1986-1995, decade. The present time-lag, in stature, of the group lowest on the social scale, the peasants, behind the social elite amounts to almost 30 years. These findings assume special significance in view of: (1) the high ethnic homogeneity of the population of Poland; (2) the absence in that population of any social-class differences in gene frequencies; and (3) certain peculiarities of Poland's post-war economic and political history.

Adolescent↗