Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T15:40:45.719Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stature and education among Roma women: taller stature is associated with better educational and economic outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2019

Jelena Čvorović Open the ORCID record for Jelena Čvorović [Opens in a new window]
Jelena Čvorović*
Affiliation:
Institute of Ethnography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The association between body height and educational outcome, as measured by years of completed schooling, was investigated among Roma women in Serbia in 2014–2018. Height, demographic data, level of schooling and reproductive histories were collected from 691 Roma women aged between 16 and 80 years living in rural settlements in central and western Serbia. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that short stature was associated with an increased risk of low education, possibly as a result of poor growth and developmental disadvantage in early life. Roma cultural practices were also shown to influence the school achievement of these Roma girls: in addition to height, education was positively associated with a higher bride price and better socioeconomic status, as acquired through marriage. For Roma women, height might influence not only their level of education but also their lifetime prospects.

Keywords

StatureEducationRoma women
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , March 2020 , pp. 260 - 271
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agarwal, N, Shah, K, Stone, JG, Ricks, CB and Friedlander, RM (2015) Educational resources “over the head” of neurosurgical patients: the economic impact of inadequate health literacy. World Neurosurgery 84(5), 1223–1226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Apostolou, M (2008) Bridewealth and brideservice as instruments of parental choice. Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology 2(3), 89–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arendt, E, Singh, NS and Campbell, OM (2018) Effect of maternal height on caesarean section and neonatal mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa: an analysis of 34 national datasets. PloS One 13(2), e0192167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ashraf, N, Bau, N, Nunn, N and Voena, A (2016) Bride price and female education. National Bureau of Economic Research. URL: http://ai2-s2-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/76fe/8473328f5a152262428cd25e9d6c42c1dcd7.pdf (accessed 5 January 2019).Google Scholar
Baten, J and Murray, JE (1998) Women’s stature and marriage markets in preindustrial Bavaria. Journal of Family History 23(2), 124–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batterjee, AA, Khaleefa, O, Ashaer, K and Lynn, R (2013) Normative data for IQ, height and head circumference for children in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Biosocial Science 45(4), 451–459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bereczkei, T (2001) Maternal trade-off in treating high-risk children. Evolution and Human Behavior 22(3), 197–212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bicego, GT and Boerma, JT (1993) Maternal education and child survival: a comparative study of survey data from 17 countries. Social Science & Medicine 36(9), 1207–1227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biro, M, Smederevac, S and Tovilović, S (2009) Socioeconomic and cultural factors of low scholastic achievement of Roma children. Psihologija 42(3), 273–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blane, D, Smith, GD and Bartley, M (1993) Social selection: what does it contribute to social class differences in health? Sociology of Health and Illness 15(1), 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brüggemann, C (2012) Roma Education in Comparative Perspective Analysis of the UNDP/World Bank/EC Regional Roma Survey. URL: http://wwwundporg/content/dam/rbec/docs/Policy-brief-Roma-educationpdf (accessed 13 December 2018).Google Scholar
Buss, DM and Barnes, M (1986) Preferences in human mate selection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50(3), 559–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvin, CM, Deary, IJ, Webbink, D, Smith, P, Fernandes, C, Lee, SH and Visscher, PM (2012) Multivariate genetic analyses of cognition and academic achievement from two population samples of 174, 000 and 166, 000 school children. Behavior Genetics 42(5), 699–710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Case, A and Paxson, C (2008) Height, health, and cognitive function at older ages. American Economic Review 98(2), 463–467.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Case, A and Paxson, C (2010) Causes and consequences of early-life health. Demography 47(1), S65–S85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Čekić Marković, J (2016) Analiza primene afirmativnih mera u oblasti obrazovanja roma i romkinja i preporuke za unapređenje mera (Analyses of Roma affirmative measures in education and recommendations). Tim za socijalno uklјučivanje i smanjenje siromaštvaVlada Republike Srbije. URL: http://socijalnoukljucivanjegovrs/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Analiza-primene-afirmativnih-mera-u-oblasti-obrazovanja-Roma-i-Romkinja-i-preporuke-za-unapredjenje-merapdf (accessed November 2018).Google Scholar
Charlton, BG (2010) Why are women so intelligent? The effect of maternal IQ on childhood mortality may be a relevant evolutionary factor. Medical Hypotheses 74(3), 401–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cinnirella, F, Piopiunik, M and Winter, J (2011) Why does height matter for educational attainment? Evidence from German children. Economics and Human Biology 9(4), 407–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cleland, JG and Van Ginneken, JK (1988) Maternal education and child survival in developing countries: the search for pathways of influence. Social Science & Medicine 27(12), 1357–1368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, JE, Kravdal, Ø and Keilman, N (2011) Childbearing impeded education more than education impeded childbearing among Norwegian women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108(29), 11830–11835.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutler, DM and Lleras-Muney, A (2010) Understanding differences in health behaviors by education. Journal of Health Economics 29(1), 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Čvorović, J (2014) The Roma: A Balkan Underclass. Ulster Institute for Social Research, London.Google Scholar
Čvorović, J (2018) Influence of maternal height on children’s health status and mortality: a cross-sectional study in poor Roma communities in rural Serbia. HOMO 69(6), 357–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Čvorović, J (2019) Self-rated health and teenage pregnancies in Roma women: increasing height is associated with better health outcomes. Journal of Biosocial Science, 51(3), 444–456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Čvorović, J and Coe, K (2019) Happy marriages are all alike: marriage and self-rated health among Serbian Roma. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography, SASA. URL: https://doiorg/102298/GEI181031001C (accessed 6 January 2019).Google Scholar
Čvorović, J and Lynn, R (2014) Intelligence and reproductive success of Bosnians, Serbs and Roma in Serbia. Mankind Quarterly 54(3/4), 434–446.Google Scholar
Deary, IJ and Johnson, W (2010) Intelligence and education: causal perceptions drive analytic processes and therefore conclusions. International Journal of Epidemiology 39(5), 1362–1369.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deary, IJ, Whalley, LJ and Starr, JM (2009) A Lifetime of Intelligence. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Deaton, A (2007) Height, health, and development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 104, 13232–13237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deaton, A and Arora, R (2009) Life at the top: the benefits of height. Economics and Human Biology 7, 133–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dickemann, M (1979) Female infanticide, reproductive strategies, and social stratification: a preliminary model. In Chagnon, NA and Irons, W (eds) Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective. Duxbury Press, North Scituate, pp. 321–367.Google Scholar
Diemer, MA, Mistry, RS, Wadsworth, ME, López, I and Reimers, F (2013) Best practices in conceptualizing and measuring social class in psychological research. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 13(1), 77–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FRA (2014) Roma Survey – Data in Focus Education: The Situation of Roma in 11 EU Member States. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. URL: http://fraeuropaeu/en/publication/2014/education-situation-roma-11-eu-member-states https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2014/education-situation-roma-11-eu-member-states (accessed 18 December 2018).Google Scholar
Gage, TB.,Fang, F, O’Neill, E and DiRienzo, G (2013). Maternal education, birth weight, and infant mortality in the United States. Demography, 50(2), 615–635. doi: 10.1007/s13524-012-0148-2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottfredson, LS and Deary, IJ (2004) Intelligence predicts health and longevity, but why? Current Directions in Psychological Science 13(1), 1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guven, C and Lee, WS (2015) Height, aging and cognitive abilities across Europe. Economics and Human Biology 16, 16–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haun, JN, Patel, NR, French, DD, Campbell, RR, Bradham, DD and Lapcevic, WA (2015) Association between health literacy and medical care costs in an integrated healthcare system: a regional population based study. BMC Health Services Research 15(1), 249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, S, Mulder, MB, James, S and Lawson, DW (2016) Sending children to school: rural livelihoods and parental investment in education in northern Tanzania. Evolution and Human Behavior 37(2), 142–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hensley, WE (1993) Height as a measure of success in academe. Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior 30(1), 40–46.Google Scholar
Hinton-Smith, T, Danvers, E and Jovanovic, T (2018) Roma women’s higher education participation: whose responsibility? Gender and Education 30(7), 811–828.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopcroft, RL and Martin, DO (2014) The primary parental investment in children in the contemporary USA is education. Human Nature 25(2), 235–250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hotchkiss, DR, Godha, D, Gage, AJ and Cappa, C (2016) Risk factors associated with the practice of child marriage among Roma girls in Serbia. BMC International Health and Human Rights, 16(1), 6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huang, Y, van Poppel, F and Lumey, LH (2015) Differences in height by education among 371, 105 Dutch military conscripts. Economics and Human Biology 17, 202–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kagawa Singer, M, Dressler, W, George, S and TNE Panel (2016) Culture: the missing link in health research. Social Science & Medicine 170, 237–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keller, MC, Garver-Apgar, CE, Wright, MJ, Martin, NG, Corley, RP, Stallings, MC, et al. (2013) The genetic correlation between height and IQ: shared genes or assortative mating? PLoS Genetics 9(4), e1003451.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kong, A, Frigge, ML, Thorleifsson, G, Stefansson, H, Young, AI, Zink, F and Gudbjartsson, DF (2017) Selection against variants in the genome associated with educational attainment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 114(5), E727–E732.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kyuchukov, H and New, W (2016) Diversity vs equality: why the education of Roma children does not work? Intercultural Education 27(6), 629–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, DW, Mulder, MB, Ghiselli, ME, Ngadaya, E, Ngowi, B, Mfinanga, SG and James, S (2014) Ethnicity and child health in northern Tanzania: Maasai pastoralists are disadvantaged compared to neighbouring ethnic groups. PLoS One 9(10), e110447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lohman, TG, Roche, AF and Martorell, R (1988) Anthropometric Standardization Reference Manual. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL.Google Scholar
Mag, AG (2012) Education of the Roma/Gypsy children in Romania. Educazione Democratica Rivista di Pedagogia politica 4, 73–78.Google Scholar
Magnusson, PK, Rasmussen, F and Gyllensten, UB (2006) Height at age 18 years is a strong predictor of attained education later in life: cohort study of over 950 000 Swedish men. International Journal of Epidemiology 35(3), 658–663.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mehra, D, Sarkar, A, Sreenath, P, Behera, J and Mehra, S (2018) Effectiveness of a community based intervention to delay early marriage, early pregnancy and improve school retention among adolescents in India. BMC Public Health 18(1), 732.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meisenberg, G (2008) How universal is the negative correlation between education and fertility? Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies 33, 205–227.Google Scholar
Murasko, JE (2013) Physical growth and cognitive skills in early-life: evidence from a nationally representative US birth cohort. Social Science & Medicine 97, 267–277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murasko, JE (2018) Sorting by height: education and economic outcomes of women in less-developed countries. Journal of Development Studies, 1–18. URL: https://doiorg/101080/0022038820181510120 (accessed 8 January 2019).Google Scholar
Pamporov, A (2007) Sold like a donkey? Bride-price among the Bulgarian Roma. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13(2), 471–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkins, JM, Subramanian, SV, Davey Smith, G and Özaltin, E (2016) Adult height, nutrition, and population health. Nutrition Reviews 74(3), 149–165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pešikan, A and Ivić, I (2016) The sources of inequity in the education system of Serbia and how to combat them. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal 6(2), 101–124.Google Scholar
Ponzo, M and Scoppa, V (2015) Trading height for education in the marriage market. American Journal of Human Biology 27(2), 164–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radovanović, S and Knežević, A (2014) Romi u Srbiji [Roma in Serbia: census data]. Republički Zavod za Statistiku, Beograd.Google Scholar
Reimer, J (2016) Education, ethnicity and gender: educational biographies of ‘Roma and Sinti’ women in Germany. European Journal of Social Work 19(3–4), 556–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rietveld, CA, Medland, SE, Derringer, J, Yang, J, Esko, T, Martin, NW and Albrecht, E (2013) GWAS of 126, 559 individuals identifies genetic variants associated with educational attainment. Science 340(6139), 1467–1471.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ringold, D (2000) Roma and the Transition in Central and Eastern Europe: Trends and Challenges. World Bank, Washington, DC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rott, L (2013) “You’re so short!”: the stigma (and disability) of being a short woman. In Barnartt, SN, and Altman, BM (eds) Disability and Intersecting Statuses. Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 7. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley, UK, pp. 207–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandiford, P, Cassel, J, Sanchez, G and Coldham, C (1997) Does intelligence account for the link between maternal literacy and child survival? Social Science & Medicine 45(8), 1231–1239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sardelić, J (2017) No child left behind in the European Union: the position of Romani children. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 39(1), 140–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silventoinen, K (2003) Determinants of variation in adult body height. Journal of Biosocial Science 35(2), 263–285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Silventoinen, K, Kaprio, J and Lahelma, E (2000) Genetic and environmental contributions to the association between body height and educational attainment: a study of adult Finnish twins. Behavior Genetics 30(6), 477–485.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skirbekk, V (2008) Fertility trends by social status. Demographic Research 18, 145–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spears, D (2012) Height and cognitive achievement among Indian children. Economics and Human Biology 10(2), 210–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stulp, G and Barrett, L (2016) Evolutionary perspectives on human height variation. Biological Reviews 91(1), 206–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taghizadeh, Z, Behmanesh, F and Ebadi, A (2016) Marriage patterns and childbearing: results from a quantitative study in north of Iran. Global Journal of Health Science 8(3), 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tao, H L (2014) Height, weight, and entry earnings of female graduates in Taiwan. Economics and Human Biology 13, 85–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Testa, M R (2014) On the positive correlation between education and fertility intentions in Europe: individual-and country-level evidence. Advances in Life Course Research 21, 28–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trivers, RL (1972) Parental investment and sexual selection. In Campbell, BG (ed.) Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man: The Darwinian Pivot. Aldine de Gruyter, New York, pp. 136–179.Google Scholar
Vogl, T S (2014) Height, skills, and labor market outcomes in Mexico. Journal of Development Economics 107, 84–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitley, E, Gale, CR, Deary, IJ, Kivimaki, M, Singh-Manoux, A and Batty, GD (2013) Influence of maternal and paternal IQ on offspring health and health behaviours: evidence for some trans-generational associations using the 1958 British birth cohort study. European Psychiatry 28(4), 219–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yamamura, E and Tsutsui, Y (2017) Comparing the role of the height of men and women in the marriage market. Economics and Human Biology 26, 42–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed