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Parental Characteristics (parental + characteristic)
Selected AbstractsThe Development of Parenting Efficacy Among New Mothers and FathersINFANCY, Issue 1 2007Esther M. Leerkes Predictors of prenatal and postnatal parenting efficacy were examined in a sample of 115 primiparous mothers and 73 fathers in an effort to examine the association between preexisting parental characteristics and prenatal efficacy and the association between prenatal characteristics and postnatal efficacy when aspects of the current parenting context are taken into account. The most robust predictors of maternal postnatal efficacy included both prenatal efficacy, which significantly predicted postnatal efficacy independent of all other predictors including the current parenting context, and perceived infant temperamental reactivity as both a main effect and as buffered by social support. This was not the case for fathers, whose postnatal efficacy was primarily a function of their amount of involvement in parenting tasks and social support. The differential predictors of mother and father efficacy as well as their implications for future research are discussed. [source] Causes and consequences of adaptive seasonal sex ratio variation in house sparrowsJOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2006ARILD HUSBY Summary 1Here we examine how sex ratio variation in house sparrow broods interacts with other demographic traits and parental characteristics to improve the understanding of adaptive significance and demographic effects on variation in sex ratio. 2The sex ratio in complete broods did not deviate significantly from parity (54·9% males). 3There was sex-specific seasonal variation in the probability of recruitment. Male nestlings that hatched late in the breeding season had larger probability of surviving than early hatched males. 4An adaptive adjustment of sex ratio should favour production of an excess of males late in the breeding season. Accordingly, the proportion of male offspring increased throughout the breeding season. 5A significant nonlinear relationship was present between sex ratio and age of the female. However, there was no relationship between parental phenotype and standardized hatch day that could explain the observed seasonal change in sex ratio. 6The sex-specific number of offspring recruited by a pair to subsequent generations was closely related to the brood sex ratio. 7These results indicate an adaptive adjustment of sex ratio to seasonal variation in environmental conditions that affects the offspring fitness of the two sexes differently. Our results also suggest that such a sex ratio variation can strongly influence the demography and structural composition of small passerine populations. [source] Offspring sex ratio skew in the sexually monomorphic house martin Delichon urbicumJOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2010Monika Zieli Sex ratio at conception may be under selection pressure, given that male and female offspring differ in the cost of production or generate different fitness returns under specific conditions. We studied adjustments in the primary, secondary and tertiary sex ratio in house martin Delichon urbicum, which is a sexually monomorphic, socially monogamous, colonial bird. Males of this species engage in extra-pair copulations with heavy males acquiring the highest fertilization success. We analyzed variation in the sex ratio in relation to clutch size and parental characteristics including body condition, wing length, as well as length and pigmentation of the white rump patch during three breeding seasons. The only variable which significantly explained the variation in the sex ratio was wing length of the social father and mother. The proportion of sons among offspring was positively correlated to wing length of the social father and negatively correlated to mother wing length. Social father wing length positively correlated with mean brood body mass at fledging, which may suggest that females that mated with long-winged males produced sons, which acquired the highest total fertilization success. Consequently, our results indicate that house martin females may adaptively adjust offspring sex composition at egg laying in relation to the characteristics of their social mate. [source] Anorexia nervosa and parental bonding: the contribution of parent,grandparent relationships to eating disorder psychopathologyJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2008Laura Canetti Abstract The present study adopted an intergenerational approach in examining the association between parental bonding and anorexia nervosa. Forty-three anorexic participants and 33 nonclinical comparison participants completed eating disorder questionnaires and the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). The participant's parents also completed the PBI. The anorexic participants perceived both parents as less caring and fathers as more controlling than nonclinical participants. Among anorexic participants, mother control and father care were associated with symptom severity. Intergenerational effects were present. Among anorexic participants, maternal grandmother care was associated with eating disorder psychopathology. The present findings suggest that parental characteristics of grandparents might play a role in the development of eating disorders in granddaughters. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 64: 703,716, 2008. [source] Register data suggest lower intelligence in men born the year after flu pandemic,ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 3 2009Willy Eriksen MD Objective To test the hypothesis that prenatal exposure to the Hong Kong flu, an influenza pandemic that haunted Europe during winter 1969 to 1970, was associated with reduced intelligence in adulthood. Methods Data from the Medical Birth Register of Norway were linked with register data from the National Conscript Service. The sample comprised all registered boys born alive in single birth after 37 to 43 weeks' gestation during 1967 to 1973 (n = 205,634). Intelligence test scores, recorded at military conscription, were available for 182,913 individuals. Results The mean intelligence score increased from one birth year to another, except for a downturn in 1970. The birth year 1970 was inversely associated with intelligence score (,0.03 standard deviation [SD]; p < 0.001) after adjustments for birth characteristics, parental characteristics, and the trend of increasing scores over the 7 birth years. Analyses with the sample stratified by birth month showed that the inverse association between the birth year 1970 and intelligence score was significant only among men born in July (,0.04 SD; p = 0.049), August (,0.05 SD; p = 0.013), September (,0.09 SD; p < 0.001), and October (,0.06 SD; p = 0.008). Thus, the intelligence scores of the men born 6 to 9 months after the epidemic were lower than the mean values for the men born in the same months a few years before or after. Interpretation Early prenatal exposure to the Hong Kong flu may have interfered with fetal cerebral development and caused reduced intelligence in adulthood. Ann Neurol 2009;66:284,289 [source] | |||||||||||||