Height and Social Adjustment: In Reply

Abstract

In Reply .— Although we are grateful to Dr Kemp for his interest in our study,1 we would like to respond to several issues raised in his letter. We assert that the industry-sponsored studies2,3 cited to support Kemp's view that patients with short stature exhibit academic underachievement, behavior problems, and reduced social competency relative to norms are limited by several fundamental problems. First, no evidence was provided that participants in either study were representative of the cohort referred to pediatric endocrinologists at the 27 recruiting centers of the Genentech-sponsored National Cooperative Growth Study. Without details regarding selection factors, prevalence estimates of adjustment problems are meaningless. Second, it was reported that IQs for the patient groups fell in the high-average range, whereas scholastic achievement was average.2 The authors interpreted the disparity …