Maternal reproductive characteristics and the body traits of preschool children

The authors studied the influence of maternal reproductive characteristics on their preschool children’s body traits in a village in southern Spain, assuming that children’s size at preschool age is associated with their future reproductive patterns. The variables considered were: 1) mother’s age at menarche, as a more genetically informative variable, 2) as a more environmental variable, a new index of maternal time availability, and 3) birth weight to control its influence on early patterns of growth. The children’s body traits considered were weight and height, and a body mass index was also computed. According to these results, the mother’s age at menarche is related to those body parameters which probably influence the children’s future reproductive strategies.