Young Daughters Research Articles

Abstract P6-08-04: The Impact of a Breast Cancer Diagnosis in Young Women on their Relationship with their Mothers

Abstract Background: Breast cancer in younger women (≤ 40) is associated with greater physical and psychological morbidity than in older women. No study to our knowledge has examined the effect of a breast cancer diagnosis in young women on their relationship with their mothers, or the support needs of these mothers. Methods: We developed and pre-tested a self-administered questionnaire on 10 survivors of breast cancer diagnosed ≤ age 40 for clarity, content and sensitivity (San Antonio, 2011). Then, consecutive recurrence-free women age ≤ 40 at diagnosis, within 4 years of a breast cancer diagnosis, whose mothers were alive at diagnosis, were asked to complete the modified questionnaire in a medical oncology follow-up clinic. Results: Of 110 eligible daughters approached from 07/2011–05/2012, 90 with a mean age 36 (range 21–43) participated in the study. Stage at diagnosis: 1–23 (26%), 2–46 (51%) 3–21 (23%). Ethnicity: Asian: 29 (32%), Caucasian 43 (48%), Black 2 (2%), Mix/Other 16 (18%). At diagnosis, 15 were living with their mothers, 44 were not living in the same city including 23 who were in different countries, 7 of whom were not informed of the diagnosis as the daughters did not want to worry them. Mean age of the 88 mothers alive at time of study was 64 (range 48–84) and 16 had previously had breast cancer. Illness attributions: Eight blamed their mothers for their developing breast cancer, and 22 believed their mothers felt responsible to some extent (overlap in 4). Supports: Of the 43 daughters who had turned to their mothers for emotional support over the year prior to diagnosis, all but one did so after diagnosis, as did 20% of those who had not turned to mothers over the year prior to diagnosis. In 11 cases, the daughters turned to their mothers before approaching anyone else for support. Of the 83 daughters who informed mothers of their diagnosis, 76 (92%) reported their mothers were emotionally and/or practically supportive. The 4 most difficult issues faced by daughters were fatigue, anxiety, breast loss and menopausal symptoms, with 70 daughters discussing at least some issues with their mothers. Of the 35 working mothers, 27 took time off to support their daughters. Nineteen mothers slept over or moved in with the daughters during their treatment, 8 of whom had been living in a different country. Forty-four (44/83=53%) daughters reported that the breast cancer diagnosis had a favorable impact on their relationship with their mothers. Formal supports for mothers: Thirty-two (32/83=39%) reported their mothers did not have adequate psychosocial support, and 59 (59/90=66%) indicated health care professionals could help mothers by providing brochures on caring for a daughter with breast cancer, having professionally led education sessions, as well as support groups. Conclusion: Mothers are an important source of support for young breast cancer daughters, and most daughters perceived that the diagnosis resulted in the mother-daughter relationship becoming closer. However, the physical and emotional toll on mothers appears to be high. Future studies should address the effects of a breast cancer diagnosis in a young daughter from the mothers' perspective, and the benefit of formal, culturally sensitive supports for these mothers. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-08-04.

George Chalmers’ portrait of James Lind, 1783-2008: a reconstruction

Sir George Chalmers' portrait of James Lind is likely to have been painted in 1783, at the end of Lind's term as Chief Physician at The Royal Hospital, Haslar, which is shown in the background of the picture. The books shown in the picture are Lind on Scurvy,1 which stands upright on Lind on Climate2; and An essay on the most effectual means of preserving the health of seamen,3 which lies open under Lind's left hand. The lettering on the spine of the other book (lying directly on the table) is not legible, but it is presumably Lind's Two papers on fevers and infection.4 The portrait seems likely to have remained at The Royal Hospital Haslar,5 until Edmond Peters, a descendant of James Lind, obtained it at the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century. The portrait passed from Edmond Peters to Jack Peters, one of his two sons. Jack and his wife Mabel (nee Palmer) emigrated to South Africa in 1946; but two weeks after the family arrived in Johannesburg, Jack was killed in a road traffic accident, leaving Mabel to cope with two young daughters in a strange country. After Jack's estate had been wound up they moved to Highlands North, a Johannesburg suburb, when their possessions were brought out of storage. However, Mabel disposed of the portrait, together with other antiques, because she was concerned that the heat in South Africa might damage them. The portrait appears to have been sold in the late 1940s. However, there is no information as to its whereabouts from then until it was purchased in Johannesburg in November 1953 by Kurt and Lorna Hepner. It is not known who the seller was, but it could well have been an art dealer. Since then the portrait has remained in the Hepner family. A note on the back of the portrait in Lorna Hepner's handwriting states that the picture is “signed and dated 1783”, although these details are not obvious in the current framing. After Lorna Hepner's death, the painting was inherited by her family in England, arriving there late in 2008. Soon after, John Hepner, Lorna's son, discovered The James Lind Library, which contains biographical details about Sir George Chalmers, Lind's portraitist, researched by John Chalmers.6 Because John Chalmers’ article noted (at the time) that the current whereabouts of the portrait were not known, John Hepner contacted him to let him know that the portrait was in the Hepner family's possession, and in England. John Chalmers informed Iain Chalmers, who went to meet the Hepner family with his son Theo Chalmers, a professional photographer, who photographed the portrait for publication in The James Lind Library. Copyright in the painting belongs to John Hepner.

Beliefs and attitudes regarding human papillomavirus vaccination among college-age women

Research on the human papillomavirus vaccine has largely focused on parents' attitudes toward vaccinating their young daughters. Yet, little is known about the factors that influence human papillomavirus vaccination in college-age women who are still eligible for the vaccine. This study examined attitudes toward the human papillomavirus vaccine in 150 college-age women who had received the vaccine and 58 who had not. The Health Belief Model was used to predict vaccine intentions and to compare vaccinated and unvaccinated women. Women's self-efficacy, social environment, and perceptions of the vaccine predicted vaccine intentions and behaviors. Interventions might include these factors to promote vaccination.

Study of Bone Mass in Young Daughters of Women With Fracture of the Distal End of the Radius

The main aim was to assess whether young and healthy daughters of women with fractures of the distal end of the radius (DER) had less bone mass than the control group. In an observational study of cases and controls (1:1), the daughters of women with fractures of DER (96) were selected at the age of reaching the peak of bone mass and compared with a control group (91). All women underwent medical history, analytical determinations, and densitometry. In the case group, we found lower bone mass values at the spine and femoral neck than the control group. We also found a lower bone mass at the hips of daughters of women with 1 or more osteoporotic fractures associated with DER and at the lumbar spine in those whose mothers had densitometric osteoporosis. In conclusion, young daughters of women with fractures of DER had lower levels of bone mass density, with a possible “location-specific” occurrence based on the presence of 1 or more osteoporotic fractures associated with DER or on the presence of maternal densitometric osteoporosis.

Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America. Jo B.Paoletti. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.

Pink and Blue: Telling Boys from Girls in America. Jo B. Paoletti. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012. Jo B. Paoletti's study was inspired nearly thirty years ago by simple question: When did we start dressing girls in pink and boys in blue? (xiii). To answer it, Paoletti pored over catalogs, baby record books, advertisements, birth announcements, greeting cards, paper dolls, photographs, childcare manuals, periodicals, trade publications for garment industry, mothers' blogs, and artifacts of children's clothing. In addition, she conducted interviews to learn more about how fashion for under-seven set changed from approximately 1885 to present day. Her study draws on theories of material culture, history of childhood, consumer culture, developmental psychology, and fashion history. Paoletti's completion of book was prompted by Peggy Orenstein's article on Disney princesses in New York Times and subsequent best-selling book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, in which Orenstein voices question of many parents of young daughters today: Why is everything for little girls so pink and feminine? Paoletti begins her book with assertion that most clothing for children is purchased by adults; thus, child dress says lot about cultural attitudes toward childhood. children, clothing becomes way of fitting in and expressing identity, especially related to gender or class. Paoletti expected childhood dress to be a modified version of adult dress, but instead found something else: a highly complex interaction between children and adults, including both parents and grandparents (15). Her study, chronological in nature, shows how childhood experiences of one generation affect dress of next. Pink for girls and blue for boys, it turns out, is fairly recent phenomenon. In fact, as Paoletti notes, the conventions of 2010 are nearly reverse of those in 1890 (xiii). In late 1800s, both boys and girls wore primarily white for pure practicality: children get dirty, and white clothing can be easily bleached. Infant boys and girls also wore dresses that extended foot past their toes to keep babies' feet warm. These dresses were not regarded as feminine attire, simply baby attire. The traditional white christening gown for both genders pays homage to this practice. The color white also suggests purity and innocence, traits associated with babies. Toddler boys and girls also wore dresses, although they became shorter as growing children gained more mobility. Up until 1930s, dresses, skirts, or robes for litde boys were not considered unusual. In chapter tided Pants Are for Boys and Girls, Paoletti discusses rite of passage known as breeching, when boy traded dresses for trousers, marking his first step into manhood (44). Many believed that dressing boys in pants brought about more masculine behavior. However, it was not only boys who wore pants. The romper, two-legged, or bifurcated, garment that provided comfort and room for movement during play, became popular for both boys and girls. Gender distinction in clothing parallels developments in child psychology. Paoletti devotes great deal of her chapter titled A Boy Is Not Girl to treatment of frilly Fauntleroy suit, which had its heyday between 1889 and 1895 and is signature element in popular story by Frances Hodgson Burnett that was first published in 1886 as serial in children's magazine, St. NichoUs, and later same year as book. Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book gushed about look in 1889: For small boys nothing has met with such universal favor as Fauntleroy suit. It certainly is most attractive seen for some time. It is usually made of black velvet or velveteen, with broad collar and cuffs of Irish point lace, with sash of silk passed broadly around waist and knotted on one side (68). …

Time for “The Talk” . . . Now What? Autonomy Support and Structure in Mother-Daughter Conversations About Sex

This study explored how mothers communicated with their young adolescent daughters about the high-stakes topic of sex, as well as more everyday topics, from a Self-Determination Theory perspective. Mothers and their 11- to 14-year-old daughters (44 dyads) participated in two conversations and reported on their experiences. In the everyday conversation, maternal autonomy support was positively related to daughters’ experience, engagement, and desire for additional conversations. In the sex conversation, maternal structure was positively associated with daughters’ engagement, experience, and desire for additional conversations. Mothers were less autonomy supportive in conversations about sex, as compared to everyday topics. Maternal perceptions of threat were associated with less autonomy support in both conversations and worry during the conversation was negatively associated with autonomy support in the everyday conversation, and with structure in the sex conversation. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Mother-daughter communication about breast cancer risk: interpersonal and biological stress processes

Women with a personal or maternal history of breast cancer experience psychological stress in relation to breast cancer risk, and adolescent and young adult daughters are particularly at risk for experiencing stress related to their mothers' history of breast cancer. The current study examined interpersonal and biological stress responses during a laboratory-based communication task about breast cancer risk in 32 mother-daughter dyads and explores whether certain communication styles between mothers and daughters are associated with increased stress reactivity during the task. Five saliva samples were collected from each participant to determine cortisol baseline levels, reactivity to, and recovery from the task. Negative maternal communication was associated with higher cortisol levels in daughters. In addition, maternal sadness was correlated with lower levels of daughters' cortisol at all time points with the exception of baseline measures. Implications for understanding the psychobiology of stress in women at risk for breast cancer are highlighted.

The Descendants and Pastoral Care

Films can explore religious and spiritual questions in many ways. The Descendants (Payne 2011) is a particularly rich narrative in the questions it raises about pastoral care for families who are grieving over the loss of a loved one. A husband is about to lose his wife, and their two young daughters are grieving over the loss of their mother. After this life-changing event, they must choose whether they will grow closer together or face the future without strong ties to their family of origin. If they are not particularly religious, can ritual or scripture still help them cope? What role can the pastoral caregiver play in helping them see God’s presence in their lives?

The Ongoing Disaster

On March 15, 2011, late at night at the Osaka train station, I met the first refugees from the earthquake that I would come to know. The family of four did not look like what I thought that people who were fleeing the horrendous images on television would. The mother, father, and two young daughters were neatly dressed, and their yellow lab was obediently packed into a crate that stood in the middle of their matching suitcases. Each wore a crisp, white mask. Much as I wanted to hear stories of what they had seen, I imagined that they did not want to talk. My son, however, zoomed a toy train over to their youngest girl, who was about six or seven; she happily raced it back. I motioned for him to stop and smiled at the mother, who acknowledged me from behind her mask as she brushed a hand across her forehead in exhaustion. “Are you OK?” I asked, not knowing how to avoid noticing that something appeared wrong. “Mmmm-hmmm.” “Are you traveling further tonight?” “Kanazawa.” “How terrible it all must be.” “We're from Fukushima,” she said. “We're fine. Our house is fine. It all looks fine, but we don't know what will happen, and the girls are so young.”

Red Flags Are Blowin’ on the Tyra Show: Acknowledging the Body in Middle Grades Education

One hour and thirty-seven minutes. That was how long my conversation about topics relating to lasted with a group of seventh grade girls a Barnes & Noble cafe. Periods, pregnancy, anorexia, bulimia, and breast size were specific topics on that day-but just on that day. conversation week before involved 30 minutes of speculation about their shapes (I'm kinda like a Coke bottle. think I'm of a pear. like my curves! Hips are what make you look feminine.); why girls thought they should not be having sex want to be love. The Bible says you have to be married. want to find right man. don't need no man!); and curious thoughts about girls at their school who had recently come as bisexual (My mom said [the girl] ain't even old enough to know what she likes yet. think she's just doin' it because her sister is a full lesbian. think she's doin' it to get attention from boys.) week before that we spent at least 40 minutes totally devoted to menstruation. We engaged a period discourse, just as my friends and I had done when we were trying to make sense of menstruation middle school-who had the red flag blowin' or the painters movin' in and who did not, strange smells and odors they were encountering, variety blood color, how long their cramps lasted, benefits of tampons versus pads, embarrassing conversations with fathers, and ponderings about why boys don't have to all of things [girls] go through with their bodies. We discussed all this with intermittent side conversations about which Hollywood stars recently had collagen injected into their booties, which ones were having fat removed from their backs and added to their breasts, and why those stars felt need to do such things to their bodies.During these weekly writing group meetings, I was not always initiator of conversations about these bodyrelated themes. I would try to begin our conversation most days with some provocative poem by Maya Angelou or Nikki Giovanni, and somehow I would end up hearing about minister who had young adolescents one girl's youth group choose to say penis or vagina out loud five times with a partner as an icebreaker so that youth group could become more comfortable talking about sensitive issues. (I wonder how that would go over as a beginning-of-the-year icebreaker a seventh grade math or social studies class!)Spending a few hours each week for a year with this group of seventh grade girls, I eventually learned that some body-related topic would surface, whether I-the teacher/researcher figure-was present or not. Why? Because it is and bodily experiences that surrounding world becomes meaningful for us (Dahlberg, Dahlberg, & Nystrom, 2008; Merleau-Ponty, 2002/1962). Whether or not we want to formally acknowledge school, our students are always thinking and talking about bodies and are experiencing world their bodies. In their body talk, young adolescents are telling us quite a bit about their experiences of being young adolescents, students, friends, siblings, daughters or sons, and human beings. And to understand and learn from those bodyrelated stories, we have to begin listening differently.In this article, I draw upon body-related lessons I learned from a group of 12-year-old girls to offer some recommendations for addressing these issues schools. First, I suggest that educators have to begin acknowledging that bodies, not just minds, inhabit educational spaces. Students and educators alike are sensing and experiencing subject-bodies with desires, thoughts, emotions, and feelings that are constantly perceiving and interacting educational spaces. If we begin thinking about bodies as mediators of experience rather than remaining stuck mind-body assumption that is a mere biological object to be moved around classroom like a piece of furniture, then we can create, understand, and live knowledge differently-as embodied. …

Afterword to E. P. O’Donnell’s The Great Big Doorstep

Afterword to E. P. O’Donnell’s The Great Big Doorstep Eudora Welty As this novel opens, Topal and Evvie, the two young Crochet daughters, are out in frosty grass bringing down all the birds they can manage to hit with a slingshot, then wading through the marsh to trade the birds to a smelly old fisherman to use as bait in return for coffee coupons good for premiums redeemable at the store; and “Let me carry her,” Evvie says when the statue of the Blessed Mother is handed over. “I killed most of the birds.” It is a strange opening scene, set in a part of the country most of us never saw, had never known was on the map. It is a scene which takes for granted the misuse of everything—birds—young girls—the Virgin—probably even the barter system. It is also true comedy, and is brought about to tell us how desperate life is on Grass Margin. Grass Margin is the name of this narrow peninsula at the lowest fringe of Louisiana, running out into the Gulf of Mexico at the Mississippi’s mouth, and margin is the word for their whole world, and the fact of their lives, for the people there; it is the exact substance of what they are clinging to to survive. It’s where the verbal form for “go” is “take the levee,” where crawfish breed under the house, where the vibrations from a passing boat cause the statue of the Blessed Mother to travel across the mantel shelf to the edge and need to be kept an eye on, and where the lone doctor arrives at his office in hip boots and carrying a pirogue paddle, direct from his latest confinement case in the marshes. The novel has strong physical presence. How easy it is to see the family out on the levee, stooped under the great white clouds “as though hunting something which had fallen from the sky”—actually for wild greens on Good Friday to cook for dinner; the young girl fruitpickers in their tinted blouses up in the orange trees, being treated to a wrestling match on the ground between two furious young men, delighting in it even when a knife is pulled out; Jaurelle dancing on the sack of dried shrimps to remove their shells. O’Donnell makes eloquent even the objects of everyday life: the old cypress pirogue, “hollowed from a root by Tony’s great-grandfather, was filled with ancient cracks and holes patched over with rusty tin. Its bottom, [End Page 13] which had been dragged over reefs and clamshell bottoms for nearly a hundred years, was worn thin as grocery cheese.” Even when we can’t see it, we know this world is there. At midnight, we can smell the lilies from a mile away. In the river fog, we hear the close bells of invisible ships. When sentimental Uncle Dewey tells Topal, “Don’t be downhearted, my lil Creole belle,” she flares up. “Who’s Creole? I’m Cajun and proud of it.” So are they all, proud, passionate, and instantly assertive. They’re a people temperamentally unsuited to working for others. (Remember poor Topal, trying it at the shrimp factory.) The grain of their character is independence. And in their hearts they can all be dreamers. There’s only one who takes authority as a realist. “Me, I been fooled too much,” says Mrs. Crochet to Commodo, her husband. “You got sixty dollar, you ole rangatang of a fool walking all over your shoestrings with your sherry-wine ideas?” O’Donnell writes with particular tenderness for the youthful characters, and with one exception (Mrs. Crochet, of course) they have been given more depth than their elders. We see Evvie—vulnerable, sweet-natured, responding with fervor to life before she quite knows (and nobody will tell her) where it can lead her—she can’t help calling back and forth with those unseen men in their unseen boat in the fog—and at fourteen helplessly seductive, she is besieged simultaneously from four directions with unwanted attentions, simply by occupying her seat at the movie on bank night. Her dream, that...

Palpitations

A 38-year-old man presents to his primary care physician for follow-up and review of the results of a 24-hour ambulatory monitor that was placed after an emergency department evaluation for palpitations and chest pain 2 days earlier. He had been hospitalized 2 months earlier for severe headaches and elevated blood pressure. A workup for secondary causes of hypertension was negative, and he was started on bisoprolol and hydrochlorothiazide. He subsequently began experiencing intermittent episodes of lightheadedness and presyncope. Three days before seeing his primary care physician, he developed palpitations and central chest pressure radiating to his back associated with dyspnea at rest. When his wife, a registered nurse, checked his pulse and blood pressure, his heart rate was 140 to 160 beats per minute and regular. It slowed with a coached Valsalva maneuver. His wife noted his blood pressure was 140/70 mm Hg. He was taken to a local emergency department where, on arrival, his symptoms resolved and his vital signs normalized. The evaluation in the emergency department included electrolytes, a troponin, and a chest film that were all reportedly normal. He was discharged wearing a 24-hour ambulatory monitor with instructions to follow up with his primary care physician. He reported no syncopal episodes and denied orthopnea, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, or lower-extremity edema. His past medical history includes hypertension and degenerative joint disease. His only medications are the bisoprolol, hydrochlorothiazide, and an occasional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug for back pain. He has no allergies, but he had had an intolerable cough when taking an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor for his hypertension in the past. He has no history of tobacco or illicit drug use. He occasionally drinks alcohol and 1 caffeinated beverage daily. He is married with 2 young daughters and is employed as a mechanical engineer. He recalls that a paternal …

When professional detachment is brought closer to home

During a community placement I was closely involved in the palliative care of a woman in her thirties who had malignant melanoma with secondary metastasis. The patient had decided to die at home near her husband and young daughters, and was receiving medication to assist symptoms management.

Predictors of mother–daughter resemblance in dietary intake. The role of eating styles, mothers’ consumption, and closeness

The present study examined the resemblance between daughters’ and mothers’ intake of energy-dense food (EDF) and vegetables as perceived by daughters and the potential moderating influence of relationship closeness. One-hundred and twelve female first-year psychology students (aged 17–25 years) completed an online measure incorporating questions on demographic information, food frequency, eating style, and mother–daughter closeness. The EDF and vegetable consumption of daughters and their perception of their mothers’ consumption were significantly related. Daughters who ate more EDF perceived that their mothers consumed more EDF and vegetables overall and had lower levels of restrained eating. Both mothers’ consumption of vegetables (as perceived by daughters) and the number of meals consumed within the family home had a strong influence on daughters’ vegetable intake. Closeness of the mother–daughter relationship did not moderate the relationship between the EDF or vegetable intake of mothers and daughters. Overall, these findings are consistent with the contention that mothers may have a significant influence on the EDF consumption and vegetable intake of their young adult daughters. The mechanism of this influence requires further investigation.

Child Underreporting, Fertility, and Sex Ratio Imbalance in China

Child underreporting is often neglected in studies of fertility and sex ratio imbalance in China. To improve estimates of these measures, I use intercensal comparisons to identify a rise in underreporting, which followed the increased enforcement and penalization under the birth planning system in 1991. A new triangulation of evidence indicates that about 19% of children at ages 0-4 were unreported in the 2000 census, more than double that of the 1990 census. This evidence contradicts assumptions underlying the fertility estimates of most recent studies. Yet, the analysis also suggests that China's fertility in the late 1990s (and perhaps beyond) was below officially adjusted levels. I then conduct a similar intercensal analysis of sex ratios of births and children, which are the world's highest primarily because of prenatal sex selection. However, given excess underreporting of young daughters, especially pronounced just after 1990, estimated ratios are lower than reported ratios. Sex ratios in areas with a "1.5-child" policy are especially distorted because of excess daughter underreporting, as well as sex-linked stopping rules and other factors, although it is unclear whether such policies increase use of prenatal sex selection. China's sex ratio at birth, once it is standardized by birth order, fell between 2000 and 2005 and showed a continuing excess in urban China, not rural China.

"Everything is Going to Sixes and Sevens": Governing the Female Body (Politic) in Jane Austen's Catharine, Or the Bower (1792)

"Everything is Going to Sixes and Sevens": Governing the Female Body (Politic) in Jane Austen's Catharine, Or the Bower (1792) John C. Leffel Female modesty is the last barrier of civilized society. —John Bowles, Remarks on Modern Female Manners (London, 1802) Recent scholarly interest in Jane Austen's juvenilia has helped to dispel the persistent myth of a prim and proper, unsexed and ahistorical author by recovering aspects of Austen's sexually charged humor, aggressive wit, and investment in the history and politics of her time that earlier readers and critics—starting with her own family—had rendered opaque (see esp. Auerbach; Doody; Leffel; and Heydt-Stevenson, "Pleasure"). Of particular interest in this regard is Austen's unfinished novel Catharine, or the Bower (1792), 1 a work in which, as Brian Southam notes, "burlesque is intermingled with [Austen's] first experiments in realistic social comedy and more flexible narrative forms" (246). Such a blending—one that Austen's niece, Caroline, had disparaged as a formal and stylistic "betweenit[y]" (qtd. in Le Faye 276) 2 —allows, I argue alternatively, for the powerful authorial exploration of social and political concerns that reflect the tumultuous era in which the novel was written (see also Johnson, "The Kingdom" 51; Heydt-Stevenson, Unbecoming Conjunctions, 170-75 ; Tuite 49-55; and Waldron 19). In Catharine, Austen employs pointed cultural references and suggestive literary allusions to upend repressive discourses that sought to regulate young women's bodies and minds and inhibit their sexuality. A focus on the novel's allusions and intertexts, as well as on the figure of the titular bower, reveals Austen's critique of her culture's myopic [End Page 131] investment in young women's sexual chastity (or "virtue") by foregrounding how this fixation actually serves to exploit the very women it seeks to protect. Austen's pointed allusions and dynamic social comedy break down barriers and expose a repressive social system—one that is epitomized through the characters of Mrs. Percival (a sermon-toting guardian with a neurotic fear of sexuality) and, to a lesser extent, Edward Stanley (an eccentric, handsome cousin with a seductive disregard for propriety). In demonstrating how conduct literature and regulatory discourses can produce and maintain misogynistic economies, Austen assails the notion that women's sexuality, if not strictly contained and policed, constituted a revolutionary threat that could potentially, to quote the novel's hyperbolic Mrs. Percival, set the kingdom at "sixes and sevens" (204). By so doing, Austen's oft-neglected early novel satirically deflates the widely held conservative argument 3 —espoused by commentators such as James Fordyce and Hannah More—that strict governance of the female sexual body equates with proper governance of the state. "It is not merely the name of an Arbour, which charms me" The novel's opening paragraphs establish a disturbing atmosphere of repression, loss, victimization, and compensatory response. Having been orphaned as a young child, the novel's heroine, Catharine or "Kitty," is raised by her "Maiden Aunt" Mrs. Percival (186). Though her intentions are good, Mrs. Percival's thoughts and actions are dominated by an obsessive concern with her young charge's virtue. Following the advice of moralizing authors like James Fordyce, who encouraged parents to dissect young daughters' deportment "with particular solicitude" (Fordyce 157), Mrs. Percival "watch[es] over [Kitty's] conduct with so scrutinizing a severity, as to make it very doubtful to many people, and to Catharine amongst the rest, whether she loved her or not" (186). Fearful that even the slightest contact with young men will lead to her ward's ruin, Kitty's aunt refuses to let her socialize in the neighborhood and prevents her from visiting young male relations. And in a misguided attempt to regulate her niece's character and conduct, she plies Kitty with sermons, conduct books, and conservative fiction. Blessed with "a fund of vivacity and good humour" (186), however, Kitty is able to brush off her aunt's suspicions, refusing to let them "damp[en]" (186) her "remarkably open and unreserved" (189) disposition by seeking constant refuge in "a fine shady Bower" (187), built with the aid of beloved childhood companions, Cecilia and Mary Wynne, and invested with...

A very large proportion of young Danish women have polycystic ovaries: is a revision of the Rotterdam criteria needed?

According to the Rotterdam 2003 criteria, an ovary is defined as polycystic if 12 or more follicles of 2-9 mm are present, when evaluating the ovary by ultrasonography on Days 3-5 of the menstrual cycle in women not using hormonal contraceptives. The aim of this population-based study was to estimate the prevalence of polycystic ovaries (PCO) in a representative sample of young Danish women according to the Rotterdam criteria. From a Danish pregnancy cohort established in 1988-1989, 267 (61%) young adult daughters agreed to participate in a clinical examination and 174 (40%) consented to vaginal ultrasound. Sufficient image quality in at least one ovary was obtained from 154 women. Both users and non-users of hormonal contraceptives were included and the examination was not restricted to a particular time of the menstrual cycle. The median (range) age was 20.1 (19.5-21.0) years. The median follicle number per ovary was 14 (6-30) and 12 or more follicles were counted in 104 of the 154 women. Thus, the prevalence was estimated to 68% [95% confidence interval (CI): 60-74%]. PCO were present in 80% (95% CI: 65-89%) of non-users (n = 44) of hormonal contraceptives. Of the 104 women with PCO, 41% (95% CI: 32-51%) could be defined as having polycystic ovary syndrome. A very large proportion of the young women had PCO according to the Rotterdam 2003 criteria. As the number of follicles is higher at a younger age, we believe the Rotterdam criteria should be revised, particularly to avoid misdiagnosis in this age group.

Communication About Sexuality With Mothers and Stepmothers From the Perspective of Young Adult Daughters

Children can benefit when they are able to talk about sexuality with their parents. Studies indicate that adolescents prefer to discuss sexuality primarily with their same-sex peers and siblings. In families, teens prefer confiding in their mothers, then their fathers, and finally their stepparents of either gender. In an exploratory qualitative study, using a family systems and communication boundary perspective, 19 young women who self-identified as having a positive relationship with their mothers and nonresidential stepmothers were interviewed in depth. One area of strength identified was that the participants had open communication with their mothers. Although the volume of communication between mothers and daughters was greater than between stepmothers and stepdaughters, the content differed. Ten of the young women could confide in their stepmothers about their sexual experiences, whereas none of young women confided about sexuality with the mothers, with the exception of sexual health issues. This finding might indicate an unrecognized characteristic of positive stepmother–stepdaughter functioning. Practice implications are explored.

Young Adult Daughters' Accounts of Relationships With Nonresidential Fathers: Relational Damage, Repair, and Maintenance

This article explores processes of relational damage, repair, and maintenance within adult daughters' accounts of their current relationships with their nonresidential fathers. Drawing on research of a sample of self-selected adult daughters who experienced parental divorce in childhood, the author explores how the processes of relational damage, repair, and maintenance contribute to and are of consequence to adult daughters' understandings of their current relationships. The author demonstrates that it is through exploring the gathered relational histories that processes of relational development are highlighted, offering a way of better understanding the consequences of divorce on the construction of parent–child relationships throughout the life course.

Looking Backward

Looking Backward John Rees Moore (bio) Summertime, by J. M. Coetzee. (Viking, 2009. 266 pages. $25.95) How lucky can you be? Here is a man who can indulge in the delicious irony of writing about his younger self after he is dead. A famous writer, he has attracted a biographer who goes to the trouble of hunting up five people who knew him when he was young and unpromising. They describe him as awkward, shy, bumbling, withdrawn, and unattractive. None of them give the slightest inkling of what he was to become. One is Adriana, a native Brazilian who has found her way to Cape Town, where she is left with two young daughters after her husband dies of brain damage from an attack with an axe while he is serving as a guard. She meets Coetzee while he is teaching her young daughter. This is how she describes him: “He was in his early thirties, I estimated, badly dressed, with badly cut hair and a beard when he shouldn’t have worn a beard, his beard was too thin.” He also struck her not just as unmarried, but “also [End Page lxxxiv] not suited to marriage, like a man who has spent his life in the priesthood and lost his manhood and become incompetent with women.” As it turns out, he has no teaching certificate, and yet he teaches her beautiful lively daughter English, making her memorize poems by Keats (“What is Keats?” she asks). The tone of the interviews is complex: hilarious, witty, sad, dramatic, subtle, and wonderfully natural all at once. It seems perfectly balanced as a piece of writing. Each interview has its own flavor, but in none of them does Coetzee appear as a bright young man going places, who is full of ambition and self-confidence. Yet neither is he just a bewildered clumsy lout. He says to Adriana that he was not born to coach students to pass exams: “But it is not my vocation. It is not what I was called into the world to do.” What strange things this strange young man says. He has loftier fare in store. But he seems to have no idea how he will take the next hurdle. Julia, an attractive twenty-six-year-old woman, the subject of a broken marriage, the mother of a young daughter, has an affair with Coetzee—an act she says she will never forget (“her heart never stopped hammering”). Thus she repays her husband’s previous betrayal. She comments to the interviewer that though Henry James frequently uses the theme of betrayal, she doubts he ever committed the bodily act. (A rare authorial slip: it’s hard to imagine her having read James or even George Eliot, much less having noted the theme of betrayal. Coetzee just wanted to give his own opinion without attribution.) Julia, by the way, stresses her complete innocence in the arts of seduction, but she also admits that she was the leader, not Coetzee, entering into the affair. So, no matter how sexless young Coetzee appears to some women, we know that they have missed something about him. This adds another layer of irony to this portrait of the artist as a young man. As colleagues of Coetzee as a teacher, both Martin and Sophie agree that he was an adequate academic, though that being a librarian might have suited him better. It is significant that both taught courses with him and both of them seem very bright. (It is curious that he and Martin are contenders for a job that Martin gets and that he doesn’t. Yet they are colleagues in the same institution as if they both won.) In the Sophie interview the stress is more on African politics and Coetzee’s “conservative” and “utopian” outlook. Sophie is to the left of Coetzee: she finds him naïve and impractical. The more radical students avoided his course on African literature. Neither of Coetzee’s colleagues changes the essential picture we have from the previous interviews of a man withdrawn and secretive, who finds connection with others to be uneasy and difficult (though he immediately takes to Martin and vice versa...