First- and second-time parents’ couple relationship: from pregnancy to second year postpartum

First- and second-time parents’ couple relationships were studied from early pregnancy to the second year postpartum. The Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) was administered to Portuguese couples (N = 82), first- or second-time parents, at the first, second and third pregnancy trimester, childbirth, 3 and 18 months postpartum. Adverse changes in positive and negative partner relationship dimensions were reported from early pregnancy to the second year postpartum by all participants; in the same way by mothers and fathers and by first- and second-time parents. Second-time parents reported a worse couple relationship (lower RQ-positive scores) than first-time parents, but only during pregnancy. Results from the present study suggest a decline in partner relationship quality during the transition to parenthood both in mothers and fathers, as well as in first- and second-time parents.

Childhood history of abuse and child abuse potential: the role of parent’s gender and timing of childhood abuse

It has been suggested that being physically abused leads to someone becoming a perpetrator of abuse which could be associated to parents' gender, timing of the physical abuse and specific socio-demographic variables. This study aims to investigate the role the parents' gender, timing of childhood abuse and socio-demographic variables on the relationship between parents' history of childhood physical abuse and current risk for children. The sample consisted of 920 parents (414 fathers, 506 mothers) from the Portuguese National Representative Study of Psychosocial Context of Child Abuse and Neglect who completed the Childhood History Questionnaire and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. The results showed that fathers had lower current potential risk of becoming physical abuse perpetrators with their children than mothers although they did not differed in their physical victimization history. Moreover, the risk was higher in parents (both genders) with continuous history of victimization than in parents without victimization. Prediction models showed that for fathers and mothers separately similar socio-demographic variables (family income, number of children at home, employment status and marital status) predicted the potential risk of becoming physical abuses perpetrators. Nevertheless, the timing of victimization was different for fathers (before 13 years old) and mothers (after 13 years old). Then our study targets specific variables (timing of physical abuse, parents' gender and specific socio-demographic variables), which may enable professionals to select groups of parents at greater need of participating in abuse prevention programs.

Stress, cognitive appraisal, and psychological health: testing instruments for health professionals

The job of health professionals, including nurses, is considered inherently stressful (Lee & Wang, 2002; Rutledge et al., 2009), and thus it is important to improve and develop specific measures that are sensitive to the demands that health professionals face. This study analysed the psychometric properties of three instruments that focus on the professional experiences of nurses in aspects related to occupational stress, cognitive appraisal, and mental health issues. The evaluation protocol included the Stress Questionnaire for Health Professionals (SQHP; Gomes, 2014), the Cognitive Appraisal Scale (CAS; Gomes, Faria, & Gonçalves, 2013), and the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12; Goldberg, 1972). Validity and reliability issues were considered with statistical analysis (i.e. confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity, and composite reliability) that revealed adequate values for all of the instruments, namely, a six-factor structure for the SQHP, a five-factor structure for the CAS, and a two-factor structure for the GHQ-12. In conclusion, this study proposes three consistent instruments that may be useful for analysing nurses’ adaptation to work contexts.

The microscope : its history, construction, and application, being a familiar introduction to the use of the instrument and the study of microscopical science / by Jabez Hogg ; with upwards of five hundred engravings and coloured illustrations by Tuffen West.

8th ed.

Four-month-olds make triangular bids to father and mother during trilogue play with still-face

(from the journal abstract) A new observational procedure, Trilogue Play with Still-face, revealed 4-month-olds' capacities to address both their fathers and mothers, by rapidly shifting gaze and affect between them. Infants were observed in four interactive contexts: (1) '3-together' play with both parents; (2) '2 + 1' play with one parent engaging and the other as third party; (3) the same, with one parent posing a still-face; (4) '3-together' play. Infants were able to discriminate between the four contexts. They coordinated three social poles of attention in each one. Their affect configurations were context sensitive. These findings demonstrate the infant's social capacities for triangular, three-person interactions, in addition to dyadic, two-person, and triadic, two-person plus object, ones. They support a view of intersubjectivity as primary and point to a promising field of investigation for the study of family process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)

A Rural Community in a Brazilian Western Amazonian Region: Some Demographic and Epidemiological Patterns

Some demographic and epidemiological patterns of the rural population of Monte Negro, locality situated in the State of Rondônia (Brazil), Western Amazonia, are described based on a sample of 924 randomly selected individuals, approximately 10% of the whole population. The main features of this sample are (1) the illiteracy rates in the parental generation were 23% for fathers and 20% for mothers. Among children, this figure dropped to 6%; (2) housing in Monte Negro is characterized by being constructed with wood (92%), and also a floor (75%). Nevertheless, only 32% of these houses had electric energy; (3) the mean ages for the parental generation were 41.9 for males and 36.3 for females. These values for the offspring generation were 12.2 and 10.5, respectively; (4) the sex-ratio of the offspring generation was 1.32;(5) the bioassay of kinship was estimated as .033 for this long range migrant population; (6) the prevalence of some macrophage dependent infectious disease was conspicuously high; (7) the reported number of malarial episodes among males and females was statistically different, suggesting that malaria may be, in part, a "professional" disease; (8) the prevalence of serum-positive reactions against B-hepatitis is distressing. It has a strong age dependence and reaches 74% among adult males. Conversely, signs of active infection (AgHbs) rises to 16% among children.

Paternity and health services. Qualitative research on men's experiences during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum of theirs partners

Background: Little research has been carried out with regards to the inclusion of men during the birth process. The objective of this paper involves exploring the needs and expectations of the health services manifested by a group of fathers as a result of their experience during the birth process. Methods: Qualitative research was carried out in Granada in 2004 via individual interviews with fathers who showed shared responsibility in the upbringing. The profile is: employment, medium-high educational level, one or more child: 0-6 months of age. The transcript was subsequently submitted to hermeneutic analysis. Results: Some semantic constructs are: 1) Health Services do not concede the women as protagonists, 2) Birth process is depending on the body. Fathers can only support and fight for the relevance of men, 3) Men seem like “invisible”, 4) Health services inhibit their participation, and 5) have dealings with fathers according to their gender roles. The participants address the relationship between expectations of care during the birth process and unsatisfied demands, and the manner in which they employ the obstacles encountered within health services that inhibit their participation as arguments that confirm their separation from the process. Conclusions: This paper draws attention to the limited scope of the provision of healthcare during the birth process in terms of protagonism afforded to fathers. Indeed, despite their requisitory discourse, the interviewees manifest contradictory attitudes in the face of changes that require them to make commitments. We identify elements that could be improved to adapt services to the needs of fathers and vice versa.

Conflict resolution and evolution of social structures in insect societies

In colonies of social Hymenoptera (which include all ants, as well as some wasp and bee species), only queens reproduce whereas workers generally perform other tasks. The evolution of worker's reproductive altruism can be explained by kin selection, which states that workers can indirectly transmit copies of their genes by helping the reproduction of relatives. The relatedness between queens and workers may however be low, particularly when there are multiple queens per colony, which limits the transmission of copies of workers genes and increases potential conflicts between colony members. In this thesis, we investigated the link between social structure variations and conflicts, and explored the mechanisms involved in variation of colony queen number in ants. According to kin selection, workers should rear the brood they are most related to. In social Hymenoptera, males are haploid whereas females (workers and queens) are diploid. As a result, workers can be up to three times more related to females than males in some colonies, where they should consequently favour the production of females. In contrast, queens are equally related to daughters and sons in all types of colonies and therefore should favour a balanced sex ratio. In a meta-analysis across all studies of social Hymenoptera, we showed that colony sex ratio is generally largely influenced by workers. Hence, the evolution of social structures where queens and workers are equally related to males and females may contribute to decrease the conflict between the two castes over colony sex ratio. Another conflict between queens and workers can occur over male production. Many species contain workers that still have the ability to lay haploid eggs. In some social structures, workers are on average more related to sons of queens than to sons of other workers. As a result, workers should eliminate worker-laid eggs to favour queen-laid eggs. We showed that in the ant Formica selysi, workers eliminate more worker-laid than queen-laid eggs, independently of colony social structure. These results therefore suggest that worker policing can evolve independently from relatedness, potentially because of costs of worker reproduction at the colony-level. Colony queen number is a key parameter that influences relatedness between group members. Queen body size is generally linked to the success of independent colony foundation by single queens and may influence the number of queens in the new colony. In the ant F. selysi, single-queen colonies produce larger queens than multiple-queen colonies. We showed that this association results from genes or maternal effects transmitted to the eggs. However, we also found that queens produced in colonies of the two social forms did not differ in their general ability to found new colonies independently. Queen body size may also influence queen dispersal ability and constrain small queens to be re-adopted in their original nest after mating at proximity. We tested the acceptance of new queens in another ant species, Formica paralugubris, which has numerous queens per colony. Our results show that workers do not discriminate between nestmate and foreign queens, and more generally accept new queens at a limited rate. To conclude, this thesis shows that mechanisms influencing variation in colony queen number and the influence of these changes on conflict resolution are complex. Data gathered in this thesis therefore constitute a solid background for further research on the evolution and the maintenance of complex organisations in insect societies.

Young people, parents and radical right voting: The case of the Swiss People's Party

It is commonly found that young people tend to adopt the political party choice of their parents. However, far less is known about the applicability of this theory when investigating radical right support. Using the Swiss Household panel data (1999e2007), this study empirically identifies the relationship between parents' preference for the Swiss radical right party SVP and their attitudes toward immigrants and the EU, and their offspring's preference for the SVP. Disaggregating fathers' and mothers' influence reveals that in particular, mothers' SVP support plays a role in SVP support among young people, even after controlling for educational similarities. We also demonstrate that girls are more likely to be influenced by their mothers than are boys. Furthermore, parents' negative attitudes toward the EU exert a positive influence on their children's radical right voting, independent of their voting pattern.

Paternal involvement in child caregiving and infant sociability

In this study, the influence of paternal involvement in caregiving on infant sociability was assessed using a strange situation paradigm adapted from the work of Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978). Thirty-seven families participated with their firstborn child (aged 12-14 months). According to the questionnaire, 20 nontraditional fathers were very involved in caretaking, and 17 fathers were less or not at all involved. Infant sociability was assessed using three of Ainsworth et al.'s rating scales: proximity or contact-seeking, avoidance, and distance interaction. Results indicated that infants of nontraditional fathers were globally more sociable with all their partners (father, mother, and stranger) than infants of traditional fathers. Furthermore, results suggested that it was not only the father-infant relationship or infant development which were affected by the amount of paternal involvement in daily caretaking but the family system as a whole. Indeed, infants from nontraditional families appeared to interact equally with their fathers and mothers in direct interaction. In addition, these infants interacted at a distance with a stranger as much in the presence of their fathers as in the presence of their mothers, thereby suggesting that both parents represented an equally secure base.