Question

Short stature is considered how many standard deviations below the mean?

1) 1 SD
2) 2 SDs
3) 3 SDs
4) 4 SDs

Answer 1

Short stature is defined as being two standard deviations below the mean height for a given age and population, making option 2 the correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

Short stature in the context of growth measurements is typically defined as being two standard deviations or more below the mean height for a given age and population. A standard deviation is a statistical measure that tells us how much variation there is from the average (mean) of a set of data. When a child's height is two standard deviations below the mean, this condition is often referred to as stunting or a growth deficit. The standard deviation is particularly useful in comparing the height of an individual to a reference population's heights.

Using the z-score, which measures the number of standard deviations below or above the mean a data point is, we can conclude that a z-score of -2 indicates that the value is two standard deviations below the mean. For example, in a normal distribution of IQ scores, a score of 70 would be two standard deviations below the mean of 100. In the context of this student's question, option 2 correctly identifies short stature as being 2 standard deviations below the mean.