Abstract
Background
 Members of the same social group tent to have the same body height. Migrants tend to adjust in height to their host communities.
 Objectives
 Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors influence growth. We hypothesized that Vietnamese young adult migrants in Germany (1) are taller than their parents, (2) are as tall as their German peers, and (3) are as tall as predicted by height expectation at age 13 years.
 Sample and Methods
 The study was conducted in 30 male and 54 female Vietnamese migrants (mean age 26.23 years. SD=4.96) in Germany in 2020. Information on age, sex, body height, school and education, job, height and ethnicity of best friend, migration history and cultural identification, parental height and education, and recalled information on their personal height expectations at age 13 years were obtained by questionnaire. The data were analyzed by St. Nicolas House Analysis (SNHA) and multiple regression.
 Results
 Vietnamese young adults are taller than their parents (females 3.85cm, males 7.44cm), but do not fully attain height of their German peers. The body height is positively associated with the height of best friend (p < 0.001), the height expectation at age 13 year (p < 0.001), and father height (p=0.001).
 Conclusion
 Body height of Vietnamese migrants in Germany reflects competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments. The magnitude of this intergenerational trend supports the concept that human growth depends on Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors.
Highlights
Take home message for students Migrants adjust in body height towards the height of their peers and reflect competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments
Growth adjustments reflect the emotional challenge during the process of integration towards future social position within the host society
In view of the SEPE factors that had shaped their socialization, we developed the following hypotheses: 1. Vietnamese young adults are taller than their parents
Summary
The community effect in body height describes the “effect of social interaction within a group on the growth and body height of its members” (Hermanussen and Scheffler 2019). As humans only grow during a certain number of years and reach final height at early adulthood, the time for social growth adjustments is limited. Adult height may be considered the “frozen perception” of an adolescent’s idea of his or her future position within the social network. Perceived dominance tends to adjust height towards tall targets and results in growth stimulation (stature signals status). Their children went to German schools, and most of the second generation has already reached adult age.
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