Explaining the "parenting - callous-unemotional traits - antisocial behavior" axis in early adolescence: The role of affiliative reward.

In explaining the "parenting - callous-unemotional traits - antisocial behavior" axis, recent theoretical advances postulate a critical role for affiliative reward. Existing empirical studies focus on early childhood and the appetitive phase of the reward process (i.e. affiliation-seeking behavior) rather than the consummatory phase (i.e. affective rewards). This study focuses on experienced affiliative reward (i.e. companionship, intimacy, affection, and worth) in relation to parents and best friends in early adolescence. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, Network of Relationships Inventory, Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits, and Youth Self Report were completed by 1132 12-year-olds and analyzed via structural equation models. In this cross-sectional sample, parent-related affiliative reward mediated the path from perceived parenting practices to callousness and further to aggression and rule-breaking. Parent-related affiliative reward was also related to uncaring traits and further to aggression and rule-breaking. In contrast, friend-related affiliative reward was not a mediator in this theoretical causal chain and largely not related to perceived parenting practices or CU traits. Low parent-related experienced affiliative reward is a mechanism through which corporal punishment, poor monitoring, and low involvement translate into callousness, and therefore to aggression and rule-breaking. Friend-related affiliative reward does not yet play a role in early adolescence.

Comparative Models of Biological and Social Pathways to Predict Child Growth through Age 2 Years from Birth Cohorts in Brazil, India, the Philippines, and South Africa.

Background: Early growth faltering accounts for one-third of child deaths, and adversely impacts the health and human capital of surviving children. Social as well as biological factors contribute to growth faltering, but their relative strength and interrelations in different contexts have not been fully described. Objective: The aim of this study was to use structural equation modelling to explore social and biological multidetermination of child height at age 2 y in longitudinal data from 4 birth cohort studies in low- and middle-income countries. Methods: We analyzed data from 13,824 participants in birth cohort studies in Brazil, India, the Philippines, and South Africa. We used exploratory structural equation models, with height-for-age at 24 mo as the outcome to derive factors, and path analysis to estimate relations among a wide set of social and biological variables common to the 4 sites. Results: The prevalence of stunting at 24 mo ranged from 14.0% in Brazil to 67.7% in the Philippines. Maternal height and birthweight were strongly predictive of height-for-age at 24 mo in all 4 sites (all P values <0.001). Three social-environmental factors, which we characterized as "child circumstances," "family socioeconomic status," and "community facilities," were identified in all sites. Each social-environmental factor was also strongly predictive of height-for-age at 24 mo (all P values <0.001), with some relations partly mediated through birthweight. The biological pathways accounted for 59% of the total explained variance and the social-environmental pathways accounted for 41%. The resulting path coefficients were broadly similar across the 4 sites. Conclusions: Early child growth faltering is determined by both biological and social factors. Maternal height, itself a marker of intergenerational deprivation, strongly influences child height at 2 y, including indirect effects through birthweight and social factors. However, concurrent social factors, many of which are modifiable, directly and indirectly contribute to child growth. This study highlights opportunities for interventions that address both biological and social determinants over the long and short term.

Parenting and the Adjustment of Children Born to Gay Fathers Through Surrogacy.

Findings are presented on a study of 40 gay father families created through surrogacy and a comparison group of 55 lesbian mother families created through donor insemination with a child aged 3-9 years. Standardized interview, observational and questionnaire measures of stigmatization, quality of parent-child relationships, and children's adjustment were administered to parents, children, and teachers. Children in both family types showed high levels of adjustment with lower levels of children's internalizing problems reported by gay fathers. Irrespective of family type, children whose parents perceived greater stigmatization and children who experienced higher levels of negative parenting showed higher levels of parent-reported externalizing problems. The findings contribute to theoretical understanding of the role of family structure and family processes in child adjustment.

Structural equation model for estimating risk factors in type 2 diabetes mellitus in a Middle Eastern setting: evidence from the STEPS Qatar.

AIMS: Understanding type 2 diabetes mellitus is critical for designing effective diabetes prevention policies in Qatar and the Middle East. METHODS: Using the Qatar 2012 WHO STEPwise approach to surveillance survey, a subsample of 1224 Qatari participants aged 18-64 years was selected. Subjects had their fasting blood glucose levels tested, had not been diagnosed with or treated for diabetes, had a fasting time >12 hours and were not pregnant. We applied a hypothesized structural equation model (SEM) to assess sociodemographic, behavioral, anthropometric and metabolic variables affecting persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus. RESULTS: There is a direct effect of triglyceride levels (0.336) and body mass index (BMI) (0.164) on diabetes status. We also found that physical activity levels negatively affect BMI (-0.148) and positively affect high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (0.106); sociodemographic background negatively affects diet (-0.522) and BMI (-0.352); HDL positively affects total cholesterol (0.230) and has a negative effect on BMI (-0.108), triglycerides (-0.128) and waist circumference (-0.104). Diet has a positive effect on triglycerides (0.281) while family history of diabetes negatively affects total cholesterol (-0.104). BMI has a positive effect on waist circumference (0.788) and mediates the effects of physical activity over diabetes status (-0.028). BMI also mediates the effects that sociodemographic factors (-0.058) and physical activity (-0.024) have on diabetes status. BMI and HDL (-0.002) together mediate the effect of physical activity on diabetes status and similarly HDL and tryglycerides (-0.005) also mediate the effect of physical activity on diabetes status. Finally diet and tryglycerides mediate the effects that sociodemographic factors have on diabetes status (-0.049). CONCLUSIONS: This study's main finding is that triglyceride levels and BMI are the main variables directly affecting diabetes status in the Qatari population.

Does executive function mediate the path from mothers' depressive symptoms to young children's problem behaviors?

This study investigated the mediation role played by children's executive function in the relationship between exposure to mild maternal depressive symptoms and problem behaviors. At ages 2, 3, and 6years, 143 children completed executive function tasks and a verbal ability test. Mothers completed the Beck Depression Inventory at each time-point, and teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at child age 6. Longitudinal autoregressive mediation models showed a mediation effect that was significant and quite specific; executive function (and not verbal ability) at age 3 mediated the path between mothers' depressive symptoms (but not general social disadvantage) at the first time-point and children's externalizing and internalizing problems at age 6. Improving children's executive functioning might protect them against the adverse effects of exposure to maternal depressive symptoms.

Novice drivers' individual trajectories of driver behavior over the first three years of driving.

Identifying the changes in driving behavior that underlie the decrease in crash risk over the first few months of driving is key to efforts to reduce injury and fatality risk in novice drivers. This study represented a secondary data analysis of 1148 drivers who participated in the UK Cohort II study. The Driver Behavior Questionnaire was completed at 6 months and 1, 2 and 3 years after licensure. Linear latent growth models indicated significant increases across development in all four dimensions of aberrant driving behavior under scrutiny: aggressive violations, ordinary violations, errors and slips. Unconditional and conditional latent growth class analyses showed that the observed heterogeneity in individual trajectories was explained by the presence of multiple homogeneous groups of drivers, each exhibiting specific trajectories of aberrant driver behavior. Initial levels of aberrant driver behavior were important in identifying sub-groups of drivers. All classes showed positive slopes; there was no evidence of a group of drivers whose aberrant behavior decreased over time that might explain the decrease in crash involvement observed over this period. Male gender and younger age predicted membership of trajectories with higher levels of aberrant behavior. These findings highlight the importance of early intervention for improving road safety. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the behavioral underpinnings of the decrease in crash involvement observed in the early months of driving.

Measuring errors and violations on the road: a bifactor modeling approach to the Driver Behavior Questionnaire.

The Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) is a self-report measure of driving behavior that has been widely used over more than 20 years. Despite this wealth of evidence a number of questions remain, including understanding the correlation between its violations and errors sub-components, identifying how these components are related to crash involvement, and testing whether a DBQ based on a reduced number of items can be effective. We address these issues using a bifactor modeling approach to data drawn from the UK Cohort II longitudinal study of novice drivers. This dataset provides observations on 12,012 drivers with DBQ data collected at .5, 1, 2 and 3 years after passing their test. A bifactor model, including a general factor onto which all items loaded, and specific factors for ordinary violations, aggressive violations, slips and errors fitted the data better than correlated factors and second-order factor structures. A model based on only 12 items replicated this structure and produced factor scores that were highly correlated with the full model. The ordinary violations and general factor were significant independent predictors of crash involvement at 6 months after starting independent driving. The discussion considers the role of the general and specific factors in crash involvement.