Adolescent use of anabolic-androgenic steroids and relations to self-reports of social, personality and health aspects.

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade adolescent males have been shown to use anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) in order to improve their sports performance and appearance, as well as in combination with alcohol and psychotropic drugs. However, the risk profile of AAS use is still not well understood. This study analysed the importance of social, personality and health factors for the use of AAS. METHODS: More than 2,700 senior high school students in Uppsala, Sweden, filled out an anonymous closed-response questionnaire. RESULTS: The findings from multiple logistic regression analyses of adolescent males (n = 1,353) showed that immigrant status, average/low self-esteem, average/low perceived school achievement and use of prescription tranquillisers/sedatives had independent significant associations with the use of AAS after controlling for age and previously known factors such as strength training, truancy and heavy alcohol consumption. CONCLUSION: The characteristics of AAS users extend beyond activities such as strength training and multiple drug use to include social, personality and health aspects.

A structural modeling approach to the understanding of parenting stress.

Tested and cross-validated a multidimensional model of predictors of parenting stress on data from a population-based sample of Swedish mothers (N = 1,081) with children ages 6 months to 3 years. The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire study, focusing on the explanation of variance in parenting stress. Structural equation modeling procedures permitted disentanglement of total, direct, and indirect effects. A Swedish instrument based on parts of the Parent Domain in the Parenting Stress Index was used as a measure of stress. The results provided general support for the proposed model. High workload, low social support, perception of the child as fussy-difficult, negative life events, child caretaking hassles, more children in the family, and high maternal age related directly to more stress. Child irregularity contributed indirectly to mother's experienced stress. No buffering effects of social support were found. Forty-eight percent of the variance in the parenting stress measure was explained by the model. Implications for interventions were discussed.

A measure of parental stress in mothers with small children: dimensionality, stability and validity.

Self-reported parental stress was investigated in three samples of mothers with small children, using a Swedish version of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). Dimensionality in experienced stress using items from six PSI Parent Domain subscales and eight new items was examined in factor analyses of data from a nationwide representative sample. Cross-validation proved the chosen factor pattern to be stable. Based on an oblique 5-factor solution new subscales were constructed. A second order factor analysis indicated influence from a higher order factor, seen as a general parental stress construct. High alpha coefficients revealed that homogeneous subscales had been formed. Test-retest correlations indicated good stability over a mean time period of 30 days. Influences from maternal background variables were found, but no relation to child age or gender. Global estimates of parental stress, reported child problems, mothers' scoring on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and two measures of social support all correlated significantly with overall parental stress, and with some subscales. The justification of the subscale approach to parental stress was discussed. It was concluded that the PSI in its present form could be used as a reliable and valid instrument for measuring experienced parental stress in mothers of young children.

Measurement of two social competence aspects in middle childhood.

The psychometric properties of a rating measure for parents and teachers for social competence, conceptualized as social skills and behaviors, were studied. The rating measure was constructed from factor analyses on 4 samples of school-age children. Factor analyses identified 2 moderately correlated competence aspects, valid for both sexes and for children from varying socioeconomic backgrounds. The first factor, Prosocial Orientation, captured a style promoting positive social interactions; the second factor, Social Initiative, described initiative as opposed to withdrawal in social situations. Scales based on the 2 factors showed reliability in internal consistency and stability across 1 year, validity in interrater agreement concurrently and across 1 year, correspondence with observed peer behavior, and the capacity to discriminate between children of different peer status.

Interaction between mothers and infants born at risk during the first six months of corrected age.

The effects of preterm birth and the perinatal infant health condition on mother-infant interactions were analysed in 278 mother-infant pairs, divided into four groups according to infants' gestational age at birth: group 1, 23-31 weeks; group 2, 32-36 weeks; group 3, 37-42 weeks; and group 4, a control group of healthy full-term infants. The methodological approach was based on observation of the pairs at 2, 4 and 6 months of infants' corrected age (+/- 1 week) during undressing of the infant and face-to-face interaction. It was found that mother-infant pairs with preterm infants (groups 1 and 2) did not differ in interactional variables from those of the control group. On the other hand, the birth of a full-term infant in need of neonatal intensive care (group 3) affected maternal and infant interactive behaviour. Additionally, infants from group 3 did not show stability in their interactive behaviour between any ages of measurement. This result suggests that interactive behaviour of full-term infants in need of neonatal intensive care are rather unpredictable during their first 6 months of life, which might have contributed to the less optimal interactive pattern observed for their mothers compared with mothers of the control group.

Assessing type a behavior in 8-year-olds: exploring the overlap between the constructs of type a behavior and hyperactivity.

This study attempted to examine, by using behavioral observations, the overlap found between Type A behavior, as measured by the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) questionnaire, and measures of hyperactivity in children. The sample consisted of 91 children (46 boys and 45 girls) between the ages of 8 and 9 who were part of a longitudinal study in Uppsala, Sweden. Behavioral observations of Type A behavior and various questionnaire data were used. The behaviorally observed Type A behavior correlated significantly with MYTH Type A behavior, whereas only the MYTH Type A behavior correlated with hyperactivity measured by questionnaires. The results indicated that behavioral observations make it possible to measure Type A behavior as distinct from hyperactivity, implying that the MYTH is too indiscriminate a measure of Type A behavior. This has implications for future measurement and perhaps conceptualization of Type A behavior in children, and thereby also for studying the developmental aspects of Type A behavior.

Early child health in Lahore, Pakistan: III. Maternal and family situation.

The family situation for mothers, in three areas differing in degree of urbanization and an upper middle class control group, in Lahore, Pakistan was described. Area differences in socio-economic, family composition, and housing and sanitary conditions were investigated. Data from a longitudinal sample (n = 1476 newborns) were compared with data from a cross-sectional population survey (n = 2998 families). Risk factors for child mortality and morbidity were common in the village and periurban slum area; conditions were somewhat better in the urban slum community. The sample was concluded to be representative of the population in the three areas and also for Pakistan in general. Two indices for cross-study comparisons were proposed, one for socio-economic background and the other for housing standard. The two indices were shown to be related to maternal weight for height at 9 months of pregnancy in the urban slum area; the socio-economic level was also functionally related to the weight for height measure in the village. The lower socio-economic and housing standard level, the lower was the mothers' relative weight just before childbirth. The findings were discussed in terms of risk factors for infant mortality, morbidity and psychological development.

Prevalence studies of problematic behaviors in four-year-olds.

Prevalence rates for specific behaviors in the Problem Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ; Behar & Stringfield, 1974) and for four psychosomatically related behaviors (soiling, day and night wetting, and complaints about bodily aches) were estimated in a sample of 377 Swedish 4-year-olds described by their parents (mainly mothers). The results showed that several of the behaviors classified as outgoing conduct problems were common in this age group; boys showed more problematic behaviors than girls, as did children with older siblings. Firstborn children with younger siblings were more fearful and worried. No systematic differences between children in different types of day care were found. Maternal education had no relationship to reported child behaviors. The findings were discussed in terms of the four-year-age period as a period of transition and with regard to different family situations.