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Typical patterns of discriminative grandparental investment i.e. high investment provided by the maternal grandmother and low investment provided by the paternal grandfather, are mainly interpreted based on the "paternity uncertainty hypothesis". Accordingly, especially paternal grandfathers are confronted with a double risk of investing in genetically unrelated grandchildren. The present study focuses on the impact of phenotypic resemblance between parents and grandparents on grandparental investment. 94 female and 83 male participants aged 19 to 40 years (x = 27.4; SD = 5.8) were enrolled in the retrospective analysis. An online questionnaire, specifically developed for this study, was used for data collection. In line with predictions, the highest investment, contact frequency and best relationship were found for maternal grandmothers, while paternal grandfathers showed the lowest investment patterns. Phenotypic resemblance between parents and grandfathers enhanced grandfathers' investment significantly, but resemblance had no effect in the case of maternal grandmothers. We conclude that phenotypic similarities can be interpreted as indicators of genetic relatedness and therefore increase grandparental investment among those grandparents, who are confronted with paternity uncertainty, i.e. paternal grandmother and maternal as well as paternal grandfather.

Natural sciences are still considered as typical male fields, while humanities are interpreted as typical female topics. Economic, social but also biological factors are discussed to influence the choice of study field. In the present study, the impact of prenatal sex hormone exposure - estimated by 2D:4D ratio - on the choice of study field was analyzed. Two hundred Viennese students between the ages 18 and 28 years were enrolled. Lengths of the index finger and the ring finger were measured directly from the hand of the participants. 2D:4D ratios were calculated. Male and female students differed significantly in 2D:4D ratio. As expected, female students showed significantly higher 2D:4D ratios than their male counterparts (p < 0.001). Male scientists and male humanists differed significantly in 2D:4D ratio. The 2D:4D of male humanists was significantly higher than that of scientists (p = 0.037). Female scientists and female humanists however, did not differ significantly in 2D:4D ratio. Both showed a typical female 2D:4D ratio. This was also true of male humanists. Consequently low prenatal androgen exposure may be associated with the choice of humanities among male students.

SUMMARY The aim of this pilot study is to test a new approach to handedness assessment based on the concept of the leading hand. A well-established graphomotor performance test of handedness (H-D-T) and a new test according on the concept of the leading hand were undertaken by 41 Viennese schoolchildren between 6 and 8 years of age. The new test is based on in vivo observations of bimanual activities. In detail the test battery consisted of 8 fine motor leading hand items. Participants had to open and close four small objects (one tube, three small bottles) in order to observe twisting movements and four small objects (2 matchboxes, 2 small brushes) in order to observe back-and-forth movements. It turned out that the leading hand does not correlate with the hand dominance in a graphomotor test to the degree that the handedness in unimanual items has been found to do and that right leading hand scores in bimanual items are encountered significantly less often than right hand scores in a graphomotor test. The findings of the present study suggest that tests of the leading hand in vivo may contribute to a higher validity of the assessment of handedness in examinations of the lateralization of higher cortical functions.

Differential grandparental investment is mainly explained as a result of paternity uncertainty. Phenotypic resemblance may be interpreted as an indicator of genetically relatedness. Consequently the present study focused on the impact of phenotypic resemblance on grandparental investment, i.e. solicitude, contact frequency and quality of relationship. 213 adults persons between the age 19 and 32 years (x = 25.5; SD = 3.4) were enrolled in the study. Data concerning grandparental investment during childhood were collected retrospectively using a 30 item questionnaire. Grandparental investment patterns differed significantly according grandparent category. In detail maternal grandmothers showed the highest contact frequency and the highest solicitude while - as to be expected - the paternal grandfather exhibited the lowest degree of investment. Grandparental investment was independent of grandparent category mainly influenced by residential distance. Phenotypic resemblance had an impact on grandparental investment independent of residential distance. This was first of all true of paternal grandfathers. An impact of phenotypic resemblance on grandparental investment patters can be assumed.

Teenage pregnancies are still listed among the most important public health problems of the 21st century, although low maternal age may be a marker for social rather than biological or medical disadvantage. In the present study 51 pregnant Austrian girls ageing between 13 and 18 years (x = 16.3 yrs; +/- 1.3) who decided to give birth were enrolled. All girls were interviewed based on a structured questionnaire furthermore data from the mother-child pass port were included in the analysis. 28 girls gave birth shortly before the interview took place. Complications during pregnancy and birth were seldom and no adverse birth outcome was observed. The majority of participants received optimal medical treatment and sufficient social support from relatives and school but also from public and private institutions during pregancy. It can be concluded that social support and adequate medical treatment reduce the risk of teenage pregnancies markedly.

Auxology has developed from mere describing child and adolescent growth into a vivid and interdisciplinary research area encompassing human biologists, physicians, social scientists, economists and biostatisticians. The meeting illustrated the diversity in auxology, with the various social, medical, biological and biostatistical aspects in studies on child growth and development.

Summary: Human reproduction is a biological phenomenon, however, sociocultural factors such as marital status influence pregnancy outcome and reproductive success. In the present study the impact of maternal marital status on pregnancy outcome was tested for all births, which had taken place in Austria between 1999 and 2004, which met the following criteria: single births, nulliparity, mothers older than 19 years (n = 179 830). The rate of preterm delivery (< 37 beginning weeks of gestation) and rate of low birth weight (< 2500 g) among term births were significantly higher among unmarried mothers in comparison to married mothers. Additionally the newborns of unmarried mothers were significantly lighter and shorter than those of married mothers. This was especially true of immigrant mothers. No significant differences between married and unmarried mothers were found regarding mode of delivery. Even at the beginning of the 21st century unmarried status represents an important stress factor for pregnant women.

The formation of a special working group for gender studies within the German Anthropological Society (GfA) makes necessary a description of history as well as topics of gender studies within science and biological anthropology. In German speaking countries, gender studies are predominantly associated with social and cultural sciences, although very successful working groups belonging to natural sciences already exist. Unfortunately, up to now gender studies within natural sciences are often interpreted negatively and the existence of sex is denied. This may be due to the long and difficult history of gender studies in natural sciences. For a long time, pseudoscientific misinterpretations of results of gender studies were used to manifest the inferior social position of women. However, since more than thirty years respectable gender studies are integrated in social as well as natural sciences. Gender studies are integrative parts of nearly all subdisciplines of biological anthropology. The formation of a working group for gender studies within the GfA seems therefore to be useful.

The polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder affecting female fertility. In this study we examined psychosocial parameters caused by infertility in PCOS women with different socio-cultural background. Symptomatology of PCOS, body composition characteristics as well as psychosocial parameters were examined in 49 PCOS infertility patients of the University Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics in Vienna, who originated from two different socio-cultural subgroups - Austrian women and Moslem immigrant women. In the appearance of the symptoms the typical heterogeneity of PCOS could be found in both subgroups with no differences. However, differences in the psychosocial aspects were impressive. Women from Islamic background do have a very high reproductive pressure. The Moslem immigrant PCOS women suffer more from infertility than Austrian women do.

Group differences in symptomatology and symptom perception of young women ageing between 18 and 32 years suffering from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) were tested according to cultural background and weight status. In detail 31 Austrian women, living in Carinthia, Austria, and 102 Brazilian women, living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, were enrolled in the present study. All participants suffered from diagnosed PCOS. The prevalence of hirsutism, infertility, menstrual disturbances and overweight/obesity and their individual impact on health related quality of life were analysed. Furthermore the impact of weight status (BMI) on symptom perception was tested. It turned out, that the Brazilian sample exhibited higher prevalence of PCOS symptoms and these symptoms had a more negative impact on quality of life. The only exception was body weight. Although significantly leaner, the Austrian women showed a higher Cronin score of body weight than their Brazilian counterparts. The results of the present study may indicate that in western industrialized societies the fear of overweight is much more prevalent than in a developing country such as Brazil and thus it has more influence on the quality of life than all the other symptoms.

With 23 postmenopausal and 33 premenopausal females the interactions between circadianic secretion patterns of estradiol, growth hormone, IGF I, prolactin, DHEA-S as well as cortisol and the amount and distribution of subcutaneous body fat, estimated by using 10 absolute body measures and 10 anthropometric indices were tested. Premenopausal and postmenopausal women differed regarding the secretion patterns of estradiol and growth hormone significantly from each other. Furthermore it turned out, that the daily secretion rate, estimated by using the area under the curve, of growth hormone and estradiol correlated significantly with the amount and the distribution of body fat. In both proband groups more corpulent women had lower growth hormone levels and higher estradiol levels. The age dependent reduction of growth hormone secretion may be co-responsible for the general weight gain with increasing age. The reduced estrogen secretion however, seems to be the major determinant of the expression of a more masculine type of fat distribution during climacteric and after the menopause.

With 156 fertile and 171 postmenopausal patients of the I. Universitats-Frauenklinik in Vienna the intercorrelations between 29 cephalic and postcephalic body measures, 34 anthropometric indices and number and date of pregnancies, spontaneous abortions as well as births were computed. For both proband groups typical correlation patterns between the two trait systems could be observed. It turned out, that small, robust women with a high amount of subcutaneous fat tissue had more pregnancies and births than tall, slender women with less amount of subcutaneous fat tissue. Differences between the two groups occurred only with regard to the number of significant correlations as well as of the height of the correlation coefficients. With the fertile probands more significant and especially higher correlations were stated. The correlations between the anthropometric characters and the date of the individual pregnancies yielded marked differences between the two samples: the number of significant correlations of the postmenopausal women surpassed the number of significant correlations of the fertile women. Concerning the causes for the intercorrelations between fertility and body dimensions, hormonal factors and somatic changes resulting from pregnancies and births as well as age-dependent changes of body shape are discussed.

The present study focused on the correlations between age at menarche and body dimensions as well as sex hormone levels in 142 postmenopausal Austrian women. Statistically significant correlations occurred between the age at menarche and levels of the sex hormones estradiol, progesterone, testosterone and androstenedione as well as several cephalic and post-cephalic length- and height dimensions. Women with a late menarche showed lower sex hormone levels and surpassed women with an early menarche in all length- and height dimensions. Regarding the circumference measures and the amount of subcutaneous fat tissue, no statistically significant correlations with the age at menarche could be observed. Nevertheless the women with an early menarche were more corpulent than women with a late menarche. The fact, that with postmenopausal women no statistically significant correlations between the amount of subcutaneous fat tissue and the age at menarche could be observed is caused by several exogenous factors, like changes in nutritional habits and less physical training in ageing women.