Size Matters Stature Is Related to Diagnoses of Depression in Young Military Men

Valery Krupnik,Mariya V Cherkasova

doi:10.1177/2158244014542783

Abstract

Evolutionary theories suggest that depression has evolved as an adaptation to insurmountable adversity or defeat. One prediction stemming from these models is that individual attributes associated with defeat in a given social environment could be risk factors for depression. We hypothesized that in young military men, where physical prowess was important, short stature might constitute a risk of depression and that this risk would be specific to depression and not to other prevalent mental disorders such as anxiety. A preliminary analysis of the diagnostic profile of a sample of male military personnel treated for mental health indicates that men both shorter and taller than average by 1 standard deviation may be predisposed to higher rates of depressive but not anxiety disorders. Practical and theoretical implications of our findings are discussed.

Highlights

Does Size Really Matter?Surprisingly, this question still remains a matter of debate (Ambler, Fairchild, & Wilkinson, 2013)
Post hoc Least Significant Difference pairwise comparisons showed that both short individuals and tall individuals had significantly higher prevalence of depression diagnoses than average stature (AS) individuals, short versus average: t(155) = 2.24; p = .03; tall versus average t(168) = 2.04; p = .04; short and tall individuals did not differ from each other (Figure 1)
We found that number of combat deployments and military rank both negatively correlated with depression severity, deployments: Rho(196) = −.26; p < .0005; rank: Rho(196) = −.18; p =

Summary

Introduction

Does Size Really Matter?Surprisingly, this question still remains a matter of debate (Ambler, Fairchild, & Wilkinson, 2013). Tall stature (TS) is associated with perception of higher status and achievement (Jackson & Ervin, 1992; Lechelt, 1975; Wilson, 1968). It remains unclear whether psychosocial stress associated with SS leads to substantial functional deficits. A number of large epidemiological studies have found SS to be associated with poorer mental health (Cheung et al, 2013) and lower health-related quality of life (Christensen, Djurhuus, Clayton, & Christiansen, 2007). Other studies have concluded that height has negligible effect on health-related quality of life (Busschbach, Rikken, Grobbee, De Charro, & Wit, 1997; Coste, Pouchot, & Carel, 2012). Some studies on SS children did not find them significantly less well psychologically adjusted than their taller counterparts (Downie, Mulligan, Stratford, Betts, & Voss, 1997; Ulph, Betts, Mulligan, & Stratford, 2004)

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