Adolescent Attachment Profiles Are Associated With Mental Health and Risk-Taking Behavior.

This person-oriented study aimed to identify adolescents' hierarchical attachment profiles with parents and peers, and to analyze associations between the profiles and adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Participants were 449 Finnish 17-19-year-olds reporting their attachments to mother, father, best friend, and romantic partner and details on mental health (internalizing symptoms, inattention/hyperactivity, and anger control problems) and risk-taking behavior (substance use and sexual risk-taking). Attachment was measured with Experiences in Close Relationships - Relationship Structures (ECR-RS); internalizing, inattention/hyperactivity, and anger control problems with Self-Report of Personality - Adolescent (SRP-A) of the Behavior Assessment System for Children, third edition (BASC-3); substance use with the Consumption scale of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) and items from the Finnish School Health Promotion Study; and sexual risk-taking behavior with the Cognitive Appraisal of Risky Events (CARE). Latent profile analysis identified five attachment profiles: "All secure" (39%), "All insecure" (11%), "Parents insecure - Peers secure" (21%), "Parents secure - Friend insecure" (10%), and "Parents secure - Partner insecure" (19%). "All insecure" adolescents showed the highest and "All secure" adolescents the lowest levels of mental health problems and substance use. Further, parental attachment security seemed to specifically prevent substance use and anger control problems, while peer attachment security prevented internalizing problems. Our findings help both understand the organization of attachment hierarchies in adolescence and refine the role of specific attachment relationships in psychosocial adjustment, which can be important for clinical interventions in adolescence.

Developmental Stage-Specific Effects of Parenting on Adolescents' Emotion Regulation: A Longitudinal Study From Infancy to Late Adolescence.

The quality of parenting shapes the development of children's emotion regulation. However, the relative importance of parenting in different developmental stages, indicative of sensitive periods, has rarely been studied. Therefore, we formulated four hypothetical developmental timing models to test the stage-specific effects of mothering and fathering in terms of parental autonomy and intimacy in infancy, middle childhood, and late adolescence on adolescents' emotion regulation. The emotion regulation included reappraisal, suppression, and rumination. We hypothesized that both mothering and fathering in each developmental stage contribute unique effects to adolescents' emotion regulation patterns. The participants were 885 families followed from pregnancy to late adolescence. This preregistered study used data at the children's ages of 1 year, 7 to 8 years, and 18 years. At each measurement point, maternal and paternal autonomy and intimacy were assessed with self- and partner reports using the Subjective Family Picture Test. At the age of 18 years, adolescents' reappraisal and suppression were assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and rumination using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Stage-specific effects were tested comparing structural equation models. Against our hypotheses, the results showed no effects of mothering or fathering in infancy, middle childhood, or late adolescence on adolescents' emotion regulation patterns. The results were consistent irrespective of both the reporter (i.e., self or partner) and the parental dimension (i.e., autonomy or intimacy). In addition to our main results, there were relatively low agreement between the parents in each other's parenting and descriptive discontinuity of parenting across time (i.e., configural measurement invariance). Overall, we found no support for the stage-specific effects of parent-reported parenting in infancy, middle childhood, or late adolescence on adolescents' emotion regulation. Instead, our findings might reflect the high developmental plasticity of emotion regulation from infancy to late adolescence.

Fear and experience of childbirth among women who conceived with donated oocytes: a prospective cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to compare the level of fear of childbirth, pregnancy-related anxiety and experience of childbirth in women who conceived with donated oocytes (OD), with that in women with in vitro fertilization/intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) and spontaneous conception (SC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study. We compared women who received donated oocytes (n = 26) to matched controls, IVF/ICSI (n = 52) or SC (n = 52). Matching was made according to mothers' age, parity, plurality and the number of returned questionnaires. The participants completed the questionnaires during their second trimester and at 2 months postpartum. The Fear of Delivery Questionnaire and the Pregnancy Anxiety Scale served to study fear of childbirth, and the Delivery Satisfaction Scale served to study experience of childbirth. RESULTS: The level of fear of childbirth was lower in the women who received donated oocytes than in the women who received IVF/ICSI (p = 0.028), but similar to those in the SC group. The level of pregnancy-related anxiety was lower in the OD group than in the IVF/ICSI (p = 0.006) and SC groups (p = 0.019). The experience of childbirth did not differ between the groups. The mode of delivery was associated with the mothers' satisfaction with the delivery only in the OD group. Those who had an acute operative delivery were the most dissatisfied. CONCLUSIONS: After receiving adequate support prior to OD treatment, the women require no more support with fear of childbirth than other pregnant women, but they may require support after acute operative deliveries.

Mental health and developmental outcomes for children born after ART: a comparative prospective study on child gender and treatment type.

STUDY QUESTION: Do children born after assisted reproductive techniques (ART; IVF/ICSI) display more mental health issues or social and cognitive developmental problems at 7-8 years than naturally conceived (NC) controls, and does child gender play a role? SUMMARY ANSWER: ART children do not differ with regard to mental health or social and cognitive developmental problems when compared with controls, but some gender-specific differences do exist. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Systematic reviews have not found any evidence of delays in neurocognitive or sensorimotor development in ART children. However findings on the effect of the type of ART treatment (IVF versus ICSI) on the offspring's physical and mental development have not been uniform. Knowledge of the role of child gender in ART research is scarce. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: This prospective follow-up study compares mental health and social and cognitive developmental problems between 7-8-year-old ART and NC children, controlling for the father's age, length of the parents' partnership, mother's parity, child's gestational age, and the need of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Further, within the ART group, we analysed whether the treatment type (IVF versus ICSI) and the child's gender are associated with the mental health and developmental outcomes. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: In this study, 255 singleton ART children (IVF and ICSI) were compared with 278 NC children on parent-reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and social (social skills and peer relations) and cognitive development (executive functioning, perception, memory, and language). Within the ART group, 164 IVF and 76 ICSI children were compared on the same outcomes. Statistics included analyses of covariates (ANCOVA) with group main effects, group and gender interaction effects, and Bonferroni post hoc tests. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: ART and NC children did not differ generally in terms of their internalizing and externalizing symptoms or in the number of social and cognitive developmental problems (Group main effects, P > 0.05), but gender-specific group differences existed. The ART boys showed lower levels of cognitive problems than the NC boys, whereas ART girls showed higher levels of cognitive problems than the NC girls (Group × Gender-interaction effects with Bonferroni post hoc tests on mother-reports, P < 0.01). Further, unlike in the NC group, where boys showed more externalizing symptoms and social and cognitive developmental problems than girls (Group × Gender-interaction effects with Bonferroni post hoc tests for both parents' reports, P < 0.05), gender differences were not found in the ART group. Within the ART group, IVF and ICSI children did not differ in terms of mental health or developmental outcomes, and no significant gender differences emerged. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: The information on children's mental health and development was based on parental reports only. The dropout rate between the child's first year and the school age assessments was very high for fathers (57.4%) and substantial for mothers (30.1%), and the participating group was biased for older age of both parents and for better education of the fathers. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: The findings indicate the importance of considering child gender in learning about multiple developmental outcomes among children born after ART. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS: This study was supported by the Academy of Finland (#11232276), the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, The Family Federation of Finland, Helsinki University Central Hospital Research Funds, and the National Graduate School of Psychology. None of authors has any competing interests to declare.

Birth experience of women conceiving with assisted reproduction: a prospective multicenter study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine how infertility and subsequent assisted reproductive treatment (ART) affect a woman's childbirth experience. DESIGN: Prospective multicenter case-control study. SETTING: We recruited women pregnant with a singleton fetus after either ART (n = 324) or spontaneous conception (n = 304) from five infertility clinics and one university maternity clinic in Finland. METHODS: We studied their childbirth experience with the Delivery Satisfaction Scale. We compared how psychosocial and obstetric factors affected satisfaction and dissatisfaction with childbirth between and within the ART and the control group. Logistic regression was then used to analyse the most important contributors to the experienced dissatisfaction. RESULTS: Dissatisfaction with childbirth was as common in the ART group (11%) as in the control (10%) group. In the ART group, the women's education level, cesarean section (CS) and their partner's absence from the delivery were associated with dissatisfaction. In the control group, significant factors for dissatisfaction were nulliparity, severe pregnancy-related anxiety, emergency CS, recalled intense pain and the partner's absence from the delivery. According to adjusted logistic regression analysis of the whole sample, the independent risk factors were elective CS [odds ratio (OR) 5.7; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.2-14.1] and emergency CS (OR 2.9; 95% CI 1.3-6.5), recalled intense pain (OR 6.8; 95% CI 3.3-16.2) and the partner's absence from the delivery (OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.1-7.3). CONCLUSION: ART is not a risk factor for dissatisfaction with childbirth by itself. However, the contributors to an unsatisfactory childbirth differ partly between women conceiving with ART and those conceiving spontaneously.

What explains violated expectations of parent-child relationship in transition to parenthood?

Parent-child relationship is created already in prenatal fantasies and expectations of the child-to-be. Negative violation of these expectations after the child is born is known to be harmful for the parent-child relationship. Yet, research is scarce about the medical and psychological factors contributing to violated expectations (VE). This study models the role of parent-, delivery- and infant-related underlying mechanisms for VE. It further compares parents with assisted reproductive treatment (ART) and spontaneous conception (SC), and primi- and multiparous couples. The couples (n = 743) separately filled in questionnaires concerning their prenatal expectations (T1) and 2 months postnatal representations (T2) of intimacy and autonomy in the relationship with their child, measured with Subjective Family Picture Test. A negative or positive discrepancy indicated violated expectations. The parent-related (mental health and marital quality), delivery-related (maternal and paternal birth experience, unplanned Caesarean, and amount of analgesia) and infant-related (infant health problems, difficult infant characteristics, and parental worry) factors were assessed at T2. Results show that among mothers, the associations were mostly indirect and mediated via mental health problems. Among fathers, the associations were direct, marital problems most crucially predicting VE. ART fathers were less susceptible to VE resulting from infant-related problems than SC fathers, but more susceptible to VE resulting from delivery problems. Delivery- and infant-related factors also predicted VE differently among primi- and multiparous mothers. Considering factors that contribute to VE is important when working with couples in transition to parenthood.

Two intrauterine rescue transfusions in treatment of severe fetomaternal hemorrhage in the early third trimester.

KEY CLINICAL MESSAGE: When massive fetomaternal hemorrhage is diagnosed in the early third trimester of pregnancy, serial fetal intravascular transfusion may be an alternative to immediate delivery.

Prenatal expectations in transition to parenthood: former infertility and family dynamic considerations.

Prenatal expectations are important for the future parent-child relationship. The authors examined how maternal and paternal prenatal expectations of the relationship with the child predicted 1st-year parenting stress and whether these expectations were violated over the transition to parenthood. They further examined how former infertility affected these associations. The participants were 745 Finnish couples, 367 having undergone a successful assisted reproductive treatment and 378 conceiving spontaneously. Couples completed a questionnaire of family representations during pregnancy and when the child was 2 and 12 months old and Abidin's Parenting Stress Index at 2 and 12 months postpartum. The hypothesis of moderately high expectations predicting the lowest level of parenting stress was substantiated only concerning paternal expectations of own autonomy with the child. Generally, however, negative expectations of own and spouse's relationship with the child were linearly associated with higher parenting stress. Postnatal representations were more positive or equal to expectations, except for negative violation occurring in maternal expectation of the father-child relationship, especially among normative mothers. The results are discussed in relation to family dynamic considerations and special features of formerly infertile couples.

Does single embryo transfer improve the obstetric and neonatal outcome of singleton pregnancy?

Singleton pregnancies following in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) are associated with increased risks of abnormal placentation, pre-eclampsia and preterm birth. These risks might partly be a consequence of the number of transferred embryos. In this commentary we summarize the results of three observational studies and one randomized study with 1052 pregnancies following single embryo transfer (SET). An increased age- and parity-adjusted risk of gestational hypertension and placenta previa in the SET pregnancies as compared to the spontaneously conceiving controls was reported in one of the studies. Preterm births occurred in 6-12% of SET pregnancies and 4-6% of the newborns were of low birth weight (LBW). The frequency of preterm birth and LBW after SET were considered either lower than or similar to those after double embryo transfer (DET) but higher than after spontaneous conception. Comparison of SET and DET pregnancies thus shows heterogeneous results. Still, it seems that not even a transfer of one good-quality embryo at a time diminishes all the previously identified increased risks of certain obstetric complications and preterm births in singleton pregnancies following IVF or ICSI.

Ante- and perinatal factors and child characteristics predicting parenting experience among formerly infertile couples during the child's first year: a controlled study.

In this prospective controlled study, the authors examined (a) parenting experiences among couples with successful assisted reproduction treatment (ART; n = 367) and fertile spontaneously conceiving controls (n = 371) and (b) the impact of ante- and perinatal factors and child characteristics on parenting experiences. The results show that positive mothering experiences increased more during the 1st year of parenting and were generally higher among ART mothers than control mothers. No differences were found between ART fathers and controls in their fathering experience. Unpleasant birth experiences, low birth weight, and difficulty soothing the child were associated with high levels of parental stress in the control group, but this was not so among the ART parents. Psychosocial interventions in maternal care should take into account the various meanings that couples give to the history of infertility and conception and ante- and perinatal experiences.

Maternal mental health and medical predictors of infant developmental and health problems from pregnancy to one year: does former infertility matter?

BACKGROUND: Transition to parenthood involves considerable psychological, social and physiological changes. We examined how prenatal and perinatal mental health and medical conditions predict infant's developmental and health status at 12 months, and whether former infertility and assisted reproduction treatment (ART) affect the predictor model. METHODS: The participants were 520 mothers who filled in questionnaires at the second trimester of pregnancy (T1), and when the child was 2 months (T2) and 12 months old (T3). Depressive and anxiety symptoms indicate reduced levels of mental health, and medical factors involve problems in pregnancy (e.g., high blood pressure and bleeding) and birth complications (pain and loss of blood). Neonatal health refers to, e.g., birth-weight and neurological status. At 12 months mothers reported infants' verbal and motor development and general health status. RESULTS: First, it was shown that generally maternal prenatal anxiety and medical problems in pregnancy together predicted infant's developmental problems at 12 months through poor neonatal health, and medical problems alone also through increased level of birth complications. Second, the predictor models differed according to the history of infertility. In the ART group prenatal depression and anxiety and medical problems together predicted infant's developmental problems through maternal post-partum depression, and medical problems also through birth complications, whereas in the spontaneous conception group psychological and medical paths were separated and did not carry on developmental and health problems into 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal health care should consider both psychological and medical risk paths across the whole transition to parenthood, and be aware of specific mediating paths in the risk groups.