The Constitutional Factor of a Child's Growth and Maturation

A longitudinal study of the formation of somatotype and its influence on the rates of body growth and maturation was conducted with 100 subjects between three- to seven-years-old and 68 subjects between seven- to ten-years-old. When the somatotype was stable, these rates were lowest in the subjects of the asthenoid type (according to Shtefko) and highest in those of the digestive type. When it was unstable (in almost a half of the children), the growth and maturation depended on the type change vector, decelerating when the type weakened and accelerating when it strengthened. The most ontogenetically stable types were asthenoid and digestive ones. The boys of the digestive and girls of the muscular types demonstrated the most perfect harmony of different biological maturity criteria, whereas asthenoid children and thoracic type girls were the most dysharmonious.