Reclaiming Culture: Reculturation of Transracial and International Adoptees

The cultural experiences of transracial and international adoptees (TRIAs) are uniquely affected by their adoption across cultures and racial/ethnic groups. Upon adoption, TRIAs typically identify quickly with their adoptive parents’ White culture but may eventually seek to reclaim their birth culture. Current terminology used to describe cultural identifications and changes (e.g., acculturation, enculturation) does not adequately depict the reclamation of birth culture by TRIAs. The authors describe a new term for this process called reculturation.     

Skating through pregnancy and motherhood: A narrative analysis of digital stories of elite figure skating expectant mothers

ObjectivesAlthough research on elite sport and motherhood is growing, more research is needed to understand the narratives that shape their identities and lives. We sought to build on sport psychology research centralizing the media as naturalistic data resources to explore elite athlete mother identity in cultural context. The specific aim was to explore how elite athlete identities are portrayed during pregnancy on Instagram.DesignTwo high profile elite figure skating expectant mothers’ (i.e., Meagan Duhamel and Aljona Savchenko) Instagram posts were the focus of a dialogical narrative analysis (DNA) grounded in relativist narrative inquiry. Two research questions were explored: 1. how do expectant athlete mothers portray themselves in big and small stories, and 2. what are the implications (e.g., psychosocial, behavioural) of identity meanings portrayed in digital stories?ResultsDNA of 122 posts (n = 82 for Duhamel, n = 40 for Savchenko) identified a key big story: (re)configuring ideal pregnancy. Four small stories fed into fluid meanings of ‘ideal pregnancy’ and ways of ‘doing pregnancy’ linked to self-identity portrayals: documenting the growing life, baby bumps on display, Olympic dreams/journeys and living the good life through leisure. Consumerism was shown to thread small stories. These findings show contradictions of motherhood meanings and body ideals (e.g., feminine, athletic) vs realities (e.g., tired, sore), linked to actions (e.g., skating during pregnancy, promoting products or athlete brand), in good mother and biomedical narratives.ConclusionsA big and small story approach grounded in narrative inquiry holds value to learn more about the digital landscape’s role in shaping athlete expectant mother self-identities. Future research exploring social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) may expand intertextual understanding of athlete mothers' identities and lives.     

子女数量与育龄母亲生活满意度的链式中介模型

为探讨子女数量与育龄母亲生活满意度之间的关系,以及教养压力和心理韧性在其中的中介作用,本研究采用教养压力问卷、心理韧性量表以及生活满意度问卷对490名小学生的母亲进行测量。结果表明：（1）子女数量与教养压力存在正相关,教养压力与心理韧性、生活满意度呈负相关,心理韧性与生活满意度正相关;（2）子女数量到育龄母亲生活满意度直接效应不显著,教养压力的独立中介效应与教养压力-心理韧性的链式中介效应显著。研究揭示了子女数量与育龄母亲的生活满意度的关系及其作用机制。     

Effects of preterm birth and gender on temperament and behavior in children

The aim of the present study was to assess the direct and interactive effects of premature birth and gender on temperament and behavioral problems in 80 children aged 18–36 months. The sample was composed of children born preterm (PT; n = 44) and children born full-term (FT; n = 36). The children's mothers completed temperament (ECBQ) and behavioral problem (CBCL 1.5–5) assessments. Analyses of variance (ANOVA 2 × 2) were performed. With regard to temperament, PT children exhibited significantly higher scores on high-intensity pleasure and perceptual sensitivity and lower scores on discomfort, cuddliness, and Attentional Focusing compared with FT children. Girls scored higher on fear and discomfort compared with boys. With concern to behavioral problems, PT children scored higher on attention problems compared with FT children. No interactive effect of premature birth and gender on temperament or behavioral problems was found.     

Poverty,ethnicity, and risk of obesity among low birth weight infants

The independent and joint effects of family and neighborhood poverty and ethnicity upon weight trajectories from age two to six-and-a-half were examined using data from the Infant Health and Development Program (N = 985), an early intervention program for low birth weight children and families. At age two, family poverty was associated with higher body mass index (BMI), whereas neighborhood poverty and ethnicity were not. Over time, the BMI of toddlers from poor and near poor neighborhoods increased nonlinearly, while those from nonpoor neighborhoods remained stable. BMIs of Hispanic-American toddlers increased steadily over time, unlike African-American and Anglo-American toddlers. Although initially similar, over time African-American toddlers' BMIs increased more rapidly than Anglo-American toddlers. Family and neighborhood poverty and ethnicity were associated with BMI. More work is needed on how poverty and ethnicity contribute to differences in early weight gain in conjunction with sociocultural and environmental factors in the home and community.     

With a little help from my friends: maternal social support,via parenting,promotes willingness to share in preschoolers born to young mothers

Little is known about prosocial behaviours in children of young mothers. This longitudinal study involved 44 young mother (age <20 years at birth of first child) families and 44 older mother families, who were carefully matched for child age and gender, as well as for family structure (number of children, lone‐parent status) and socio‐economic background (maternal education, head‐of‐household unemployment, low family income). At the first time‐point (M child age = 2.45 years), mothers listed family members or friends who provided practical and/or emotional support; videos of mother–child interaction in play and tidy‐up were coded for positive and negative parenting. Two years later (M child age = 4.32 years), children's prosocial behaviours were assessed via (i) an experimental task of willingness to share and (ii) video‐based ratings of sharing and helping during dyadic play with friends. T‐tests showed few group differences in prosocial behaviours. Regression analyses showed that, for young mother families only, reduced negative parenting mediated associations between support from friends and preschoolers' willingness to share. Support from friends, via parenting, may promote willingness to share in children born to young mother families. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response expectancy versus response hope in predicting birth‐related emotional distress and pain

Response expectancies and response hopes have been shown to be two distinct constructs with important implications for nonvolitional outcomes. More specifically, studies show that response expectancies: (1) are sufficient to cause nonvolitional outcomes, (2) are not mediated by other psychological variables, and (3) are self‐confirming while seemingly automatic. A new programmatic research line has differentiated between people's response expectancies and their response hopes regarding nonvolitional outcomes and showed that even if response hope and response expectancy are separate constructs, they are not unrelated. These concepts have not yet been studied in pregnant women. Moreover, determining the causal factors that best explain the variance of emotional distress and pain in pregnancy is of great importance. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the interrelations between response expectancy and response hope in pregnant women with respect to (1) emotional distress prior to giving birth and (2) pain during giving birth. Additionally, self‐reported labor hours were analyzed as a secondary outcome. Results show that response expectancy for pain directly predicts pain, and that the discrepancy between response hopes and response expectancies is a strong predictor of investigated outcomes. Thus, our results support the idea that preventive psychological interventions for pregnant women should emphasize adjusting response expectancies and response hopes regarding the pain and emotional distress associated with giving birth. We believe that the results have both theoretical and practical implications and the topic deserves further investigation.     

What makes labour and birth traumatic? A survey of intrapartum ‘hotspots’

Evidence suggests between 1% and 6% of women develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childbirth. ‘Hotspots’ are moments of extreme distress during traumatising events that are implicated in symptoms of PTSD. This cross-sectional internet survey of hotspots examined (1) the content of intrapartum hotspots and (2) whether particular events, cognitions or emotions during hotspots are related to PTSD. Women (N?=?675) who experienced a difficult or traumatic birth completed a questionnaire composed of a validated measure of PTSD, questions concerning the existence of hotspots, and a newly developed measure of emotions and cognitions during hotspots. The majority of women (67.4%) reported at least one hotspot during birth and 52.9% had re-experiencing symptoms of these hotspots. Women were more likely to have PTSD if hotspots involved fear and lack of control (odds ratio (OR) 1.30, 95% CI 1.17–1.43) or intrapartum dissociation (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.05–1.19). Risk of PTSD was higher if hotspots concerned interpersonal difficulties (OR 4.34, 95% CI 2.15–8.77) or obstetric complications (OR 3.35, 95% CI 1.64–6.87) compared to complications with the baby.     

Brain Activity and Cognitive Transition during Childhood: A Longitudinal Event-Related Brain Potential Study

This study examined the relation between brain activation and cognitive development using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and a longitudinal design. Five-year-old girls performed a visual recognition (‘oddball’) task and an experimental analogue of the Piagetian conservation of liquid quantity task at three experimental sessions, with one year between consecutive sessions. The data revealed age-related changes in neurocognitive mechanisms common to both tasks. In comparing children before and after a Piagetian transition on a traditional clinical conservation test the data revealed a major shift in performance and ERPs to the experimental analogue of the liquid quantity task. These findings are consistent with a previously performed cross-sectional study and provide strong support for the hypothesis that cognitive transition is related to new neurocognitive mechanisms emerging during childhood. Possible implications of these findings for child neuropsychology are discussed.     

Very Low Birth Weight and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

It is well recognized that reaction time performance of term-born children with a normal birth weight (NBW > 2500 g) who fulfill the DSM-IV criteria for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the primary school age is sensitive for the presentation rate of stimuli. They have been found to perform more poorly in conditions of relatively slow event rates as compared with fast event rates. The purpose of the current study was to explore whether reaction time performance of children with very low birth weight (VLBW < 1500 g) with or without ADHD showed the same sensitivity for the factor presentation rate of stimuli compared to children with a normal birth weight plus ADHD. To this end, reaction time performance of four groups of children was compared on a Go/No-Go test with a fast presentation rate of 1 second and a slow presentation rate of 6 seconds. Groups were: children with VLBW plus ADHD, children with VLBW only, children born full term with normal birth weight (NBW >2500 g) plus ADHD, and children born full term without ADHD (the control group). Findings indicated that, compared to the non-ADHD groups, the groups with ADHD (NBW and VLBW) showed a more dramatic decline in their reaction time performance in the slow condition: a state regulation deficit. In addition, both groups showed a response inhibition deficit. No difference was found in reaction time performance between the groups of children with VLBW only and the control group.