Revision summary
The adolescent growth spurt is a rapid height-weight rise at puberty. Girls peak earlier than boys on Tanner velocity curves. Hormones drive it; nutrition and class time it. Menarche follows the height peak. Human life history pairs long childhood with this late acceleration.
Model answer
Introduction
The adolescent growth spurt is a rapid rise in height and weight at puberty. Among primates it is marked in humans and is a bio-cultural event, not only a hormone graph.
Body
Pattern
- J. M. Tanner plotted velocity curves. Peak height velocity comes earlier in girls than in boys, which is why girls may be taller at twelve and shorter as adults.
- Sex steroids, growth hormone, and IGF-1 drive the spurt. The pelvis, fat, and muscle take sex-specific paths.
- Menarche follows the height peak. Spermarche is less visible. Both lock fertility to a body that is still finishing.
Bio-cultural meaning
- Nutrition, class, and disease shift timing. Secular trend toward earlier puberty appears in well-fed populations.
- Inuit, high-altitude Tibetan, and chronically undernourished groups may show delayed or blunted spurts.
- The long human childhood plus a sharp spurt is part of the slow life-history that Washburn and later life-history theorists tied to learning and brain growth.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD CH[Childhood] --> SP[Adolescent spurt] SP --> T[Tanner velocity] SP --> SEX[Earlier peak in girls] SP --> ENV[Nutrition class climate]
Conclusion
The adolescent spurt is a human-typical velocity peak shaped by hormones and by food, class, and climate. Tanner’s curves remain the teaching tool.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Discuss different factors affecting growth and development in human beings.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q6(c)). View answer →
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Do all primates have this spurt?
A clear adolescent height spurt is especially marked in humans. Other primates show smaller or differently timed accelerations.
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Does a late spurt mean poor genes?
Usually it means energy stress or later maturation, not a racial type.
PYQ trend
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Discuss different factors affecting growth and development in human beings.
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Factors affecting growth and development
Prenatal life is germinal, embryonic, then foetal. Implantation occupies the first two weeks. Organ formation in weeks 3–8 is the main teratogen window. The foetal period is growth and maturation until birth. Nutrition and infection in each stage leave different adult traces.
Q6(c) · UPSC Mains 2016 · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks
Discuss different factors affecting growth and development in human beings.
Factors affecting growth and development
Genes and hormones set tempo and a stature range. Nutrition and infection decide whether that range is reached. Altitude, toxins, and workload add environmental load. Secular trend and feeding bias are cultural-historical factors. Tanner charts make the factors visible as velocity.
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