Negative Child Research Articles

A Qualitative Analysis of Stay-At-Home Parents’ Spanking Tweets

This qualitative study used Twitter to examine stay-at-home parents’ publicly available postings to Twitter about discipline and spanking. Many adults still support the use of spanking despite a substantial body of evidence demonstrating that spanking is linked to a range of negative child outcomes. Little is currently known about how parents think about spanking as a disciplinary practice and how parents express these beliefs online. Five million publicly available tweets were collected from self-identified stay-at-home parents. Tweets were screened for discipline and spanking content. A qualitative analysis was conducted on the final set of tweets (N= 648). Stay-at-home parents were most likely to tweet about information related to discipline and spanking compared to tweets that made up other global themes (e.g., discipline tips). Parents most commonly posted tweets that reflected their anti-spanking beliefs compared to tweets that made up other subthemes (e.g., pro-spanking). Tweets in support of spanking emerged as well, with fathers being more likely than mothers to tweet about pro-spanking beliefs and desires. However, mothers were more likely than fathers to tweet about pro-spanking behaviors. Our results provide evidence that stay-at-home parents turn to Twitter to obtain disciplinary information and disclose their anti-spanking and pro-spanking beliefs. Anti-spanking tweets potentially reflect changing social norms and suggest that some stay-at-home parents on Twitter may be engaging in selective self-presentation. Thus, Twitter may be one avenue to use for interventions to set social norms that aim to reduce parental corporal punishment.

COVID-19 and re-opening of schools: Opinions with scientific evidence.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 90% of students worldwide were affected by education loss. Moreover, for school-age children and adolescents, there may be worsening of nutrition, increasing mental health disorders, lack of physical activity, and related deleterious consequences raise concerns about negative habits, child violence, and abuse. Face-to-face education in schools provides positive educational opportunities that cannot be achieved with online education. In studies from various countries, children have milder disease, constituting as little as 1–8% of all laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, with less transmission capacity to household contacts than adults (0.5–7% vs. 10–20%). Symptomatic or asymptomatic children can infect other people less than adults. Also, the transmission of illness between students at school is less than expected, and the transmission of COVID-19 to students is usually acquired from sick adults rather than sick students. Therefore, with suitable measures, infection risk is less than expected and seems not to be higher than in other public places. COVID-19 measures in schools can be summarized as follows: avoiding crowded/close contact environments as much as possible, respecting the protective (social) distance, wearing appropriate masks, hand hygiene, and some essential protective measurements of classrooms and environment. Measurements should be participatory (students, teachers, education staff, parents, administration), applicable, sustainable, and flexible according to the conditions.

Adverse life experiences among patients with morbid obesity.

The association between highly stressful life experiences and morbid obesity is well documented internationally, but this knowledge is not incorporated to any great extent in Norwegian clinical practices. We have studied the reports of previous life stresses from a sample of Norwegian patients under assessment for morbid obesity at a centre where the topic of life experiences was included during the recording of patient histories. In the summer of 2018, an invitation to participate in the study was distributed to the last 200patients to have been examined at the Regional Centre for Morbid Obesity in Bodø. Information on lifetime adversity was collected in clinical interviews. Data were retrieved from the patient's discharge summaries, and these texts were analysed using a qualitative approach. Stressful life experiences were divided into twelve categories. The study recruited 70participants (57 women) with morbid obesity. Of these, 64 (91%) related at least one significant and stressful life experience, and 39 (56%) reported three or more different types. The most frequent types included serious relationship ruptures, parental neglect and other negative childhood experiences. In a sample of Norwegian patients who were undergoing examination for morbid obesity there were many who reported distressing life histories. Lack of existential security in childhood, often linked to complex traumas, was prominent. In light of international research on the association between trauma and obesity, our results indicate that the patient's life history should be included in an assessment of patients with morbid obesity.

Negative Childhood Experiences and Risk Aversion: Evidence from Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

Using a longitudinal study of 1,900 Peruvian children, I show that children who grow up in a household where mothers report experiencing domestic violence are more risk averse and have lower cognitive development. Risk attitudes are measured with an incentivized experiment. The effect of domestic violence on risk attitudes is not mediated by cognitive development and suggests that early negative experiences in life can directly influence the risk attitudes of children. This experience is associated with other behavioral changes as well, including lower physical activity and higher BMI.

Introducing Hard-to-Like Foods to Infants and Toddlers: Mothers' Perspectives and Children's Experiences about Learning to Accept Novel Foods.

Children reportedly consume a variety of adequate vegetables during the introduction of complementary foods, and breastfeeding helps to facilitate child food acceptance. However, dietary intake of vegetables is reported to fall when children begin to eat foods of the family table. In laboratory settings, repeated exposure is effective in promoting children's acceptance and consumption of novel foods. We have recently explored mother and child early experiences (from infancy to toddlerhood) with offering hard-to-like foods. Our findings suggest a "sweet spot" for food introduction and acceptance during the early complementary feeding period (6-12 months) with increasing variability in acceptance and negative child behaviors occurring during toddlerhood. When queried, most mothers are familiar with repeated exposure concepts, but their persistence in continuing to offer disliked foods differs. Some report they will "never give up" - a stance linked to health beliefs and that children should "eat what we eat." Others seem more influenced by children's resistance and food dislikes, and the amounts their child eat. The majority believe that children's tastes change and that their child will accept rejected foods later. These mothers may reoffer a rejected food after "a break." Opportunities exist to translate repeated exposure paradigms to practical methods mothers can successfully adopt in the home.

Pendidikan Akhlak Menurut Ibn Miskawaih dan Relevansinya terhadap Pendidikan Karakter Bangsa

The extraordinary development and explosion of science and information technology should also be accompanied by attention to education, especially moral education so that character education has lately been echoed as forming emotional intelligence of individuals, especially in the world of education being able to become a shield to be able to survive in the face of challenges of the times. Along with these problems Ibn Miskawaih in the book "Tahdzib Al Akhlaq Wa tathhir al A'raq" defines the value of moral education with a mental state that is able to encourage someone to do an act spontaneously, without the need for consideration and thought. The state of the soul (morals) is divided into two categories, namely: Innate from birth (heredity / naturalyah), and morality that is produced through the process of training and habituation. While character education has a goal to straighten out various negative child behaviors into positive ones. The alignment process which is interpreted as a behavior correction is understood as a pedagogical process, then accompanied by an exemplary school and home environment, and a habituation process. Therefore the relevance of the concept of Ibn Miskawaih Moral Education with Nation Character Education includes: 1. The objectives contained in the moral education according to Ibn Miskawaih and the goals contained in Nation Character Education are the formation of noble morals. 2. The methods and materials used by Ibn Miskawaih in the concept of moral education are also in accordance with those contained in Nation Character Education. This is the point of relevance between the two concepts, namely the objectives, methods, and curriculum.

WINNIE THE POOH AND EATING DISORDERS

The study shows that the problem of eating disorders in the twentieth century is associated with a cultural myth that created the phenomenon of Winnie the Pooh. Winnie’s character always manages to keep balance and control his emotions, manages to always be positive precisely because he eats in stress, and even when he is not hungry. Besides, he can’t stop eating all the good stuff. We suggest calling it «Winnie the Pooh syndrome». Winnie the Pooh syndrome became extremely popular due to the fact that it was offered during the period of cultural and historical trauma of hunger and danger (world war I), so during the second world war it became almost the only recipe that helped a person in a state of stress. This was fixed in the memory of generations, creating a cumulative cultural and historical trauma.The most susceptible to Winnie the Pooh syndrome are people with perfectionism, too low self-esteem, with an inflexible line of behavior, who are not able to come up with more powerful incentives for approval than sweets, as in childhood. Also plays an important role negative social experience, bullying or childhood trauma. But we can resist with Winnie the Pooh syndrome, if we realize that in our life there is something more pleasant than food – so today’s young people count calories, wear a fitness bracelet and try to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Interventions to Empower Adults with Eating Disorders and Their Partners around the Transition to Parenthood.

The transition to parenthood is perceived as a stressful life event, when parents experience an immense change of their psychological focus and a reorientation of roles and responsibilities in the family system. This process may be even more challenging in the presence of a parental eating disorder history. This paper reviews the impact of parental eating disorders on the parents, the couple relationship, and their child during the perinatal period. A parental eating disorder is associated with more negative expectations of parental efficacy as well as specific difficulties in couple communication over the child's feeding, shape, and weight. Providers who better understand the effects of an eating disorder on parental functioning can more effectively intervene early on. We also present couple- or parent-based, empirically supported interventions for adults with eating disorders and their partners in the prenatal and postnatal periods: Uniting Couples in the treatment of Anorexia Nervosa (UCAN) and Uniting couples In the Treatment of Eating disorders (UNITE) both enhance recovery from the eating disorder through a couple-based intervention; the Maudsley Model of Treatment for Adults with Anorexia Nervosa (MANTRA) incorporates the support of partners, when appropriate; Parent-Based Prevention (PBP) focuses on improving parental functioning and reducing risk of negative parental and child outcomes. Finally, we discuss the clinical implications of addressing parental eating disorders and encourage more research on these families.

Impaired P1 Habituation and Mismatch Negativity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Passive testing of auditory function is an important objective in individuals with ASD due to known difficulties in understanding and/or following task instructions. In present study the habituation to standard tones following deviants and the auditory discriminative processes were examined in two conditions: electronic and human sounds, in a sample of 16 ASD children. ASD children presented a reduced habituation in the P1 component and a decrease in the amplitude of the mismatch negativity indicating a lower auditory discrimination with respect to controls. MMN amplitude was related to sensory sensitivity. Results suggest an increased activation to repeatedly auditory stimulus and a poor auditory discrimination, for both: electronic and human sounds with consequences on the impaired sensory behavior of ASD subjects.

Associations between family factors, childhood adversity, negative life events and child anxiety disorders: an exploratory study of diagnostic specificity.

Chronic childhood adversity, negative life events, and anxiogenic parenting behaviours have all been implicated in the development and maintenance of childhood anxiety disorders. However, few studies have addressed whether these factors are associated with particular types of childhood anxiety disorders. The aims of this study were to investigate whether specific associations were obtained between specific types of childhood anxiety disorder - namely, social anxiety disorder (SOC), separation anxiety disorder (SEP) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - and the nature of particular forms of psycho-social risk - namely, chronic childhood adversity, negative life events, and particular forms of parenting behaviours. Two-hundred and ten children (aged 7-12 years) who met diagnostic criteria for SOC, SEP or GAD and their primary caregivers completed questionnaire measures on chronic childhood adversity and negative life events. In addition, dyads participated in two laboratory-based assessments of parent-child interactions. We found little evidence for disorder specificity for chronic childhood adversity and negative life events, except in the case of separation anxiety disorder. Anxious children with separation anxiety were more likely than children with other forms of anxiety disorders to live with a single parent, experience more frequent parent arguments, and more negative life events. No group differences in observed parenting behaviours were found. Childhood SEP may be particularly associated with family challenges which may need specific consideration to optimize prevention and/or treatment. Beyond this, there is limited evidence of specific associations between family and environmental factors and specific types of childhood anxiety disorders.

NEGATIVE SOCIAL SUPPORTS AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AMONG OLDER ADULTS: A CROSS-LAGGED ANALYSIS

The purpose of the study was to examine how negative social supports and depressive symptoms affect older adults over time. A subsample of participants (N = 3,084) from the Health and Retirement Study was used in this study. Summary scores for each negative social supports (spouse, children, family members, and friends) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were used to conduct two cross-lagged regression analyses for each negative social support type from waves 2010 and 2014. Covariate variables for this study included gender, years of education, self-report of health, and age. Results were computed for two age groups (i.e., 65 to 79, and 80+). Results from both age groups indicated high stability for negative social supports and depressive symptoms from waves 1 to 2. The younger age group showed no significant cross-lag or interaction effects when stabilities were included or excluded in the analyses. However, in the older group, wave 2 negative child and family member social support was predicted by wave 1 depression scores. Moreover, the older age group showed significant interaction effects of age by CESD scores on negative child and family member social supports. In conclusion, initial depressive symptoms predict higher negative social supports in children and family members at a second time point in the older age group. Future research could examine whether depressive symptoms continue to predict negative social supports in new waves. In addition, other factors, such as loneliness, or anxiety, may provide further understanding into older adults’ negative social supports.

Unraveling middle childhood attachment-related behavior sequences using a micro-coding approach.

Attachment theory states that children learn to trust in their parent’s availability and support if they repeatedly experience that their parents respond sensitively to their needs during distress. Attachment is thus developed and shaped by day-to-day interactions, while at the same time, each interaction is a momentary expression of the attachment relation. How attachment-related behaviors of mother and child follow upon each other during interactions in middle childhood, and how these sequences differ in function of attachment quality, has hardly been studied up to now. To fill this gap, we analyzed the micro-coded interaction of 55 mother-child dyads (27 girls, 28 boys, mean age: 10.3) after a standardized stress-induction. Results reveal that all mother-child dyads show a loop between positive mother and child behaviors. This pattern is complemented with a loop of negative mother and child behaviors in low-trust and more avoidantly attached children: these children tend to handle negative mother behavior less well as they show more negative behavior and less positive behavior in response to negative maternal behavior. More anxiously attached children also show less positive behavior, but react positively on collaborative interactions. The micro-coded interactions thus reveal important insights that inform practitioners and advance attachment theory.

2529. Child HIV Exposure and CMV Seroprevalence in Botswana: No Associations with 24-Month Growth and Neurodevelopment

BackgroundHIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) children are at increased risk for poorer growth outcomes compared with HIV-unexposed/uninfected (HUU) children. Mechanisms underlying the poorer growth and delays in development of HEU children compared HUU children are not fully understood. We sought to define the relationship between child CMV status and HIV− exposure status and determine if a correlation existed between CMV status and growth (and neurodevelopmental) outcomes by 24 months of age in Botswana.MethodsWe used existing data and samples from the observational Botswana Tshipidi study, pregnant women living with HIV (WLHIV) and those without HIV, as well as their infants were enrolled and followed prospectively through 2 years postpartum. We tested 18-month child plasma samples from all available children for anti-HCMV IgG. We evaluated the association between positive (vs. negative) child CMV status at 18 months, and child growth, using the World Health Organization’s Growth Standard adjusted for age and sex and neurodevelopment at 24 months of age, using the Bayley Scales of Child Development (BSID) III.ResultsOf 317 children tested for CMV IgG at 18 months, 215 (67.8%) tested positive. Significantly higher proportions of HUU children had positive CMV serology (82.6%) compared with HEU children (47.4%, P < 0.01); 96.7% of HUU vs. 10.5% of HEU children breastfed. Child CMV infection was not associated with head circumference, weight-for-age, weight-for-height, nor height-for-age z-scores at 24 months. BSID III scores in receptive and expressive language, fine and gross motor, and cognitive domains at 24 months of age also did not differ by child CMV status.ConclusionWe observed high rates of CMV seropositivity in 18-month-old children in Botswana with significantly higher CMV seropositivity among HUU children likely owing to breastfeeding. Positive CMV serostatus was not associated with child growth or neurodevelopmental outcomes at 24 months.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

Exposure to Negative Shocks and Child Development: Evidence from Boko Haram Attacks

Growing evidence shows that exposure to violent attacks during early childhood impairs the physical development of children. In this paper, I show that these effects extend to cognitive and psychological development. By exploiting exogenous variation in the location and timing of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria and new measures of physical, cognitive, and psychological development, I estimate the effects of exposure to violence on child development. Children exposed to terror attacks are 0.35 SDs shorter and 13 percentage points less likely to be developmentally on track across the cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical domains. The deficits are largest in children exposed to violence at younger ages. Mediation analysis shows that 6% of the effect on height is mediated by nutrition and parental investments can explain 7% of the effect on psychological development. This research, therefore, highlights areas in which interventions in early childhood can lessen the adverse impacts of negative shocks.

Intranasal oxytocin enhances stress-protective effects of social support in women with negative childhood experiences during a virtual Trier Social Stress Test

Oxytocin is considered a biological mechanism underlying stress-protective effects of positive social interactions. It is assumed to underlie the women-specific tend-and-befriend response to stress, although few studies have tested this assertion with female samples. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to test whether oxytocin enhances stress-protective effects of social support during stress in women, taking into account the moderating role of childhood adversity. The sample consisted of 180 female undergraduate students who had reported on experiences of childhood abuse and how often their mother used love withdrawal as an insensitive disciplinary strategy. Women participated in a virtual version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and were randomly assigned to receive 24 IU oxytocin or a placebo and to receive support or no support from a female friend (sub-groups N = 45). Results showed that oxytocin reduced heart rate variability during the TSST in participants who received support, possibly indicating that oxytocin increases attention and stimulates a challenge motivational state in the presence of a friend. In addition, we found that, in the presence of a friend, oxytocin reduced state anxiety levels and cortisol levels after the TSST, but only in women with higher levels of adverse childhood experiences. Our findings may indicate that oxytocin is a neurobiological means to attain and benefit from social support under stressful circumstances, which may be particularly adaptive for women with a history of adversity. Thus, oxytocin may function as motivator for affiliative disposition during stress exposure in women with a history of childhood adversity. Results should be replicated in clinical samples.

Maternal and Non-maternal Caregivers’ Practices in Drug Administration to Children during Illness

ABSTRACT As work practices and living arrangements change, many mothers, who are often primary child caregivers, have to make some decisions as they try to balance childcare with paid work. Increasingly, childcare is shared between parents and other caregivers. However, little is known, especially in Ghana, about the childcare practices of mothers and household non-maternal caregivers in relation to drug administration. This study was conducted in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana to explore maternal and household non-maternal caregivers’ drug administration practices to identify risk factors that are directly linked to negative child health outcomes. Primary data include in-depth interviews with mothers and household non-maternal caregivers (n = 56) and focus group discussions (n = 3). Mothers were found to be more assertive than other household non-maternal caregivers in the identification of illnesses symptoms and decisions about treatment options. However, both mothers and other caregivers were very active agents in household drug administration practices. Both caregivers indicated their compliance with medicine regimens but mothers were more likely to show a consistent understanding of medicine side effects and instructions. However, neither mothers nor the other caregivers were consistent in checking for expiry dates. Some risks to child health outcomes were identified as a result of this dual caregiving arrangement. It is recommended that further studies be conducted with larger samples and with wider geographic scope. Similarly, it is recommended that the drug administration practices of other non-maternal caregivers (for example, fathers and teachers) could be explored.

Predictors of depressive symptom trajectories in a prospective follow-up of late adolescents.

Group-based trajectory modeling holds promise for the study of prognostic indicators in the mood disorders because the courses that the individuals with these disorders follow are so highly variable. However, trajectory analyses of major depressive disorder have so far not included some of the more robust predictors of mood disorder outcome, nor have they described interactions between these predictors. A group of 186 individuals aged 15-20 years with past or current depressive symptoms, who had recently begun taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitors antidepressant, underwent extensive baseline evaluations and were then followed for up to 2 years. Trajectory analyses used weekly ratings of depressive symptoms and the resulting groups were compared by the risk factors of sex, psychiatric comorbidity, negative emotionality, and childhood adversity. A three-group solution provided the best statistical fit to the 2-year symptom trajectory. Negative emotionality and childhood adversity, though correlated, independently predicted membership in higher-morbidity groups. Female sex and comorbidity with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were also significantly more likely in the trajectory groups with higher symptom levels. However, the presence of GAD, rather than female sex, was the most important determinant of group membership. Negative emotionality was predictive of group membership only among women. Trajectory analyses indicated that week-to-week variations in depressive symptoms across individuals could best be condensed into low, remitting and persistent symptom patterns. Female sex, anxiety symptoms, negative emotionality and childhood adversity were each independently associated with trajectories of higher morbidity but negative emotionality may be prognostically important only among women.

Filling the void: Is emptiness an emotional flashback?

Experienced in both clinical and non-clinical populations, the impacts of emptiness are well-known, yet its origins remain an enigma. Theoretical models linking negative childhood experiences with emptiness, including mentalisation, emotional regulation and emotional flashbacks, are discussed.

Maternal Self-Efficacy Is Protective for Child (but Not Mother) Body Mass Index Among Mexican-Origin Children with Negative Temperament.

Childhood obesity persists as a serious public health concern, particularly among Mexican-origin youth. Teen mothers are also at heightened obesity risk. Multiple factors may exacerbate this risk, including stressors associated with parenting. Indeed, difficult child temperaments pose unique parenting challenges, which may also be linked to physical health outcomes in mothers. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the interaction between negative child temperament and parenting self-efficacy is related to the body mass index (BMI) of young children and their adolescent mothers while controlling for important contextual factors. We also examined which pathways differed for girls versus boys. Data were from a longitudinal study spanning 5 years that included 204 Mexican-origin young mothers and their children (with data collected at birth, age 4 years, and age 5 years). A multigroup structural equation modeling framework was used. The rate of early childhood obesity was low in comparison with national averages, whereas the rate of adolescent mother obesity was notably higher than the national average. Negative child temperament was associated with higher child BMI among those adolescent mothers with low parenting self-efficacy. Among the children with a negative temperament, their mothers' high parenting self-efficacy may have served as a protective factor against unhealthy child BMI. This significant interaction held for both boys and girls. Research evaluating the potential effectiveness of interventions that promote parenting self-efficacy during early childhood as a means to reduce the rate of obesity among children of adolescent mothers should be conducted.

The effect of maternal depression on mental representations and child negative affect

BackgroundMaternal depression is a widely recognized public health concern with significant implications for child functioning, including the development of negative child affect and risk for later depression. Negative mental representations may partially account for the association between maternal depression and child negative affect. MethodsThe effect of depression on low-income mothers’ representations of their child, self, and mother was assessed via Expressed Emotion (EE) during Five-Minute Speech Samples. Direct and indirect pathways between maternal depression, EE, and child negative affect were examined. Mothers (M = 24 years old) who had experienced a major depressive episode (n = 144) since child's birth, non-depressed comparison mothers (n = 62), and their children participated. ResultsExamination of between-group differences revealed that depressed mothers had higher levels of overall self EE. Trend results also suggest depressed mothers may have higher overall EE toward their children and their own mothers. Novel coding systems for EE toward self (Identity and Depressotypic Cognitions) and EE toward mother (Source of Concrete Support and Resolution of Past Adversity) were also developed and tested. A significant indirect relation was found between maternal baseline depression and child negative affect at 26 months via the mother's level of EE-Criticism of her mother. LimitationsCertain EE subcodes may need to be adapted for young children and high-risk, low-income participants. ConclusionsFindings highlights the importance of relational interventions that focus on maternal representations for women with depression and their children.