Ethnic aspects of variability of somatic sex dimorphism through parapubertal period

Abstract

Introduction. The formation of the vector and level of sex somatic differences in parapubertal period (9–17 years) is under discussion, apart with ethnic peculiarities of dynamics of sexual dimorphism of main anthropometric dimensions.

Material and methods. The construction of intergroup distribution of standardized values of sexual dimorphism of body dimensions in 9, 13 and 17 years demanded generalization of the wide spectrum of literary data on children of Russia and former USSR of 1950–2010 (over 500 samples). The quantitative estimation of SD value is based on Kullback divergence, analogue of Makhalanobis distance. To estimate the contribution of ethnic factor to the variation of SD, several pairs of samples of different ethnicity (aboriginal and Russian population), but from one and the same ecological niche, examined simultaneously, were compared.

Results. The significant influence of age factor on intergroup distribution of SD was fixed. Significant positive correlations of SD with the values of dimensions themselves for boys aged 13 and 17 years first of all (0,48–0,63 for height/weight dimensions) and negative or close to zero correlations for girls were revealed. The dynamics of somatic SD through the age interval 9–17 years for pairs of samples Estonians-Russians, Kyrgyz-Russians, Tatars-Russians, Uzbeks-Russians is, as a whole, invariant, concerning ethnicity of samples, and witness to the dominance of age physiological peculiarities over ethnic.

Conclusion. Variability of somatic SD through parapubertal age period has more or less Gaussian distribution form as well as anthropometric dimensions themselves. Significant correlations of standardized levels of SD of dimensions with the mean sample values of dimensions have different directions for boys and girls – positive in the first case, negative or close to zero in the second case, which corresponds to the same conformity of adults and may be interpreted as the confirmation of the contribution of somatic variability of male sex to formation of sex differences. Local comparisons of the compact number of ethnic groups from one and the same ecological niche didn’t reveal intergroup specificity of growth dynamics in connection with ethnic factor, which is defined by high growth rates in parapubertal period and domination of overethnic species conformities over local ethnic peculiarities. © 2025. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

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