Explore the vast range of titles available.

Parenting today is virtually synonymous with worry. We want to ensure that our children are healthy, that they get a good education, and that they grow up to be able to cope with the challenges of modern life. In our anxiety, we are keenly aware of our inability to know what is best for our children. When should we toilet train? What is the best way to encourage a fussy child to eat? How should we protect our children from disease and injury? Before the nineteenth century, maternal instinct-a mother's \"natural know-how\"-was considered the only tool necessary for effective childrearing. Over the past two hundred years, however, science has entered the realm of motherhood in increasingly significant ways. InPerfect Motherhood,Rima D. Apple shows how the growing belief that mothers need to be savvy about the latest scientific directives has shifted the role of expert away from the mother and toward the professional establishment. Apple, however, argues that most women today are finding ways to negotiate among the abundance of scientific recommendations, their own knowledge, and the reality of their daily lives.

ObjectivesChildren and adolescents, and their parents, often provide divergent assessments with regard to children’s and adolescents’ mental health. This paper addresses influential factors regarding discrepancies between mothers’ and children’s/adolescents’ reports on externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. The focus is on maternal characteristics (maternal depression, maternal parenting stress, and maternal perception of the relationship to their child) that may contribute to the emergence of discrepancies.MethodsAn empirical study with 1601 children and adolescents between the ages of 10 to 16 years, and 1119 mothers, was conducted addressing temporal relationships between maternal characteristics and informant discrepancies, with repeated assessments after 6 months.ResultsBased on polynomial regression, maternal parenting stress and negatively evaluated mother–child relationships proved to be the most important influential variables on the emergence of informant discrepancies. In addition, the results provided evidence for bidirectional influences between informant discrepancies and maternal characteristics (especially maternal depression and negative evaluations of the mother–child relationship). All significant relationships to maternal characteristics were restricted to externalizing behavior.ConclusionsFindings suggest that specific maternal characteristics, which might influence maternal interpretations, explain the occurrence of informant discrepancies regarding externalizing problems. Conversely, informant discrepancies regarding externalizing problems predicted maternal characteristics. Accordingly, a reciprocal relationship between informant discrepancies and maternal characteristics seems likely and should be the subject to future research.

Mothers are able to identify the body odour (BO) of their own child and prefer this smell above other BOs. It has hence been assumed that the infantile BO functions as a chemosignal promoting targeted parental care. We tested this hypothesis and examined whether children's BOs signal genetic similarity and developmental status to mothers. In addition, we assessed whether BOs facilitate inbreeding avoidance (Westermarck effect). In a cross-sectional design, N = 164 mothers participated with their biological children (N = 226 children, aged 0-18 years) and evaluated BO probes of their own and four other, sex-matched children. Those varied in age and in genetic similarity, which was assessed by human leucocyte antigen profiling. The study showed not only that mothers identified and preferred their own child's BO, but also that genetic similarity and developmental status are transcribed in BOs. Accordingly, maternal preference of their own child's odour changes throughout development. Our data partly supported the Westermarck effect: mothers' preference of pubertal boys' BOs was negatively related to testosterone for the own son, but not for unfamiliar children. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Olfactory communication in humans'. (ZPID).

Using correspondence testing, we investigate if employers discriminate against women based on stereotypes or prejudices. We sent four (two pairs of fictitious man–woman) résumés to 1,372 job offers from a broad selection of occupations. In one pair, candidates had equivalent curriculum vitae (CVs) except for their sex and their qualifications (meeting standards or higher). In the second pair, candidates differed by sex and parenthood status (with or without children). We interpret the observed differences in favour of men as signalling gender bias in recruitment. This bias is reduced when women have higher qualifications and increases when they have children. We interpret employers’ openness to modify their decisions when candidates’ personal characteristics differ from the group norm, and the absence of discrimination among highly qualified non-mothers, as evidence that gender bias in recruitment is largely grounded in employers’ stereotypes rather than in prejudices.

Preterm infants undergo early separation from parents and are exposed to frequent painful clinical procedures, with resultant short- and long-term effects on their neurodevelopment. We aimed to establish whether the mother’s voice could provide an effective and safe analgesia for preterm infants and whether endogenous oxytocin (OXT) could be linked to pain modulation. Twenty preterm infants were exposed to three conditions—mother’s live voice (speaking or singing) and standard care—in random order during a painful procedure. OXT levels (pg/mL) in saliva and plasma cortisol levels were quantified, and the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP) was blindly coded by trained psychologists. During the mother’s live voice, PIPP scores significantly decreased, with a concomitant increase in OXT levels over baseline. The effect on pain perception was marginally significant for singing. No effects on cortisol levels were found. The mother’s live voice modulated preterm infants’ pain indicators. Endogenous OXT released during vocal contact is a promising protective mechanism during early painful interventions in at-risk populations.

Abstract The nature and scale of the shocks to the demand for, and the supply of, home childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic provide a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of the division of home labour and the determinants of specialization within the household. We collected real-time data on daily lives to document the impact of measures to control COVID-19 on UK families with children under the age of 12. We document that these families have been doing the equivalent of a working week in childcare, with mothers bearing most of the burden. The additional hours of childcare done by women are less sensitive to their employment than they are for men, leaving many women juggling work and (a lot more) childcare, with likely adverse effects on their mental health and future careers. However, some households, those in which men have not been working, have taken greater steps towards an equal allocation, offering the prospect of sharing the burden of childcare more equally in the future.

Background: Postpartum depression is fairly common in new mothers and moreover associated with impaired bonding and poor maternal well-being. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of a mother-infant singing intervention within the first three months after birth on maternal well-being, depressive symptoms and bonding. Methods: 120 women who were recruited at the maternity ward at the University Clinic in Dusseldorf took part in this prospective, randomized-controlled study. Beside the baseline measurement 1-3 days after childbirth, depressive symptoms, maternal well-being and mother-infant bonding were evaluated with questionnaires before (two weeks after birth) and after (twelve weeks after birth) the intervention took place. The experimental group (n = 59) participated in several singing intervention sessions while the control group (n = 61) did not. In the intervention group, salivary cortisol as well as attachment and mood were assessed immediately before and after the singing sessions. Results: The participants of the intervention group showed a significant reduction of cortisol (p = .023) and an improvement of attachment and mood from start to end of the intervention session (all p (= .008). However, no prolonged effects were revealed beyond the intervention sessions as the two groups did not differ regarding the alterations of the primary outcomes postpartum depression (interaction effect p = .187) and postpartum bonding (interaction effect p = .188) in the 10-week period from two up to twelve weeks after childbirth (all p ) .05). Additional analyses of singing habits at home in both groups, revealed that only in the singing group more frequent singing was associated with less anxiety and more well-being of the mother. Conclusion: Singing towards the infant seems to have positive immediate effects on the well-being of new mothers (on subjective variables as well as physiological measurements). However, the intervention did not lead to more long-lasting positive effects, although several limitations should be considered. (ZPID).

Childhood maltreatment (CM) comprises experiences of abuse and neglect during childhood. CM causes psychological as well as biological alterations in affected individuals. In humans, it is hardly explored whether these CM consequences can be transmitted directly on a biological level to the next generation. Here, we investigated the associations between maternal CM and mitochondrial bioenergetics (mitochondrial respiration and intracellular mitochondrial density) in immune cells of mothers and compared them with those of their newborns. In n = 102 healthy mother-newborn dyads, maternal peripheral blood mononuclear cells and neonatal umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells were collected and cryopreserved shortly after parturition to measure mitochondrial respiration and intracellular mitochondrial density with high-resolution respirometry and spectrophotometric analyses, respectively. Maternal CM was assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Maternal and neonatal mitochondrial bioenergetics were quantitatively comparable and positively correlated. Female newborns showed higher mitochondrial respiration compared to male newborns. Maternal CM load was significantly and positively associated with mitochondrial respiration and density in mothers, but not with mitochondrial respiration in newborns. Although maternal and neonatal mitochondrial bioenergetics were positively correlated, maternal CM only had a small effect on mitochondrial density in newborns, which was not significant in this study after adjustment for multiple comparisons. The biological relevance of our finding and its consequences for child development need further investigation in future larger studies. This study reports data on mitochondrial bioenergetics of healthy mother-newborn dyads with varying degrees of CM. (ZPID).

Although a growing field, much is still unknown about how different clinical and social care services might improve outcomes for female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and their children who are indirectly exposed to it. This review sought to characterize the structure of programs that have been tested and documented in existing literature, and the mechanisms by which change, if any, may occur. Seventeen individual interventions and two follow-ups (n = 19) were included in the review. Findings suggest that a multileveled program of mothers and children working both separately and jointly together across sessions might generate the most successful psychosocial recovery for mothers and children who have experienced violence in the home. The mechanism by which this happens is likely a collaborative one, focused on enhancing the dyadic interaction. This article adds to the growing evidence base on IPV and confirms the positive impact on well-being that programs for IPV victims can have. The evidence-base overall could benefit from testing and replicating a combination of the results found in this review. (ZPID).

The present study investigated the associations of media use of children, media use of mothers, and parent-child interactions with behavioral strengths and difficulties in children. Screen time of 553 2- to 9-year-old children and their mothers were indicated by the daily durations of their TV/games console/computer/mobile phone use. The amount of parent-child interaction was indicated by the frequencies of shared activities at home. Behavioral strengths and difficulties of children were investigated using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Children whose mothers reported high screen times ()/= 5 h/day) were significantly more likely to show high screen times ()/= 2 h/day). High screen time of children was associated with more conduct problems, more symptoms of hyperactivity/inattention and less prosocial behavior. High screen time of mothers was associated with emotional problems, conduct problems, and symptoms of hyperactivity/inattention. In contrast, a higher frequency of parent-child interactions was associated with fewer conduct problems, fewer peer-relationship problems, and more prosocial behavior of children. Children might use the media behavior of their mothers as a role model for their own media use. Furthermore, the findings suggest that media use of children and mothers and parent-child interaction contribute independently to behavioral strengths and difficulties of children. (ZPID).