Couples as Partners and Parents over Children’s Early Years

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine couple how couple relationship quality and parental engagement are linked over children’s early years. Our sample includes 1,630 couples that are co-resident over years 1 to 3 and 1,376 over years 3 to 5 (1,196 over both periods). Overall, we find that better relationship quality predicts greater parental engagement for both mothers and fathers—especially from children’s infant to toddler years; we find little evidence that parenting predicts future relationship quality. Married and cohabiting couples are generally similar in how relationship quality and parenting are linked. When couples are having their first birth, relationship quality is more strongly tied to parental engagement for fathers (but not mothers).Couple relationship quality, parenting, fragile families

Who spanks infants and toddlers? Evidence from the fragile families and child well-being study

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCW), a birth cohort study of children in 18 medium to large U.S. cities, to examine the prevalence and determinants of spanking among infants and toddlers (at mean age 14 months). Taking advantage of the large and diverse sample in FFCW, we conduct separate analyses for children of African American (N = 1710), Hispanic (N = 853), and white non-Hispanic (N = 812) mothers. Overall, about 15% of children are spanked at 12 months, with this share rising to 40% by 18 months and nearly 50% for children age 20 months or older. We find that there are marked differences in the use of spanking across the three racial/ethnic groups, with children of African American mothers more likely to be spanked and at a younger age. Moreover, while some predictors of spanking are seen across all three groups, others vary. Mothers who are young, who report more parental stress, or report their child has a more difficult temperament are more likely to spank across all three groups. However, being a boy increases the risk of spanking only within African American families. First-born children are at elevated risk of spanking to at least some extent in all groups, but much more so within Hispanic families. In addition, maternal employment is associated with a greater likelihood of spanking in Hispanic families. Although spanking at these young ages is not necessarily indicative of maltreatment, it may be a marker for families who are at elevated risk of maltreatment. As such, our findings, by highlighting some risk factors that are common across groups as well as some that are more important for particular groups, may have implications for child abuse prevention

HI Selected Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: The Colors of Gas-Rich Galaxies

We utilize color information for an HI-selected sample of 195 galaxies to explore the star formation histories and physical conditions that produce the observed colors. We show that the HI selection creates a significant offset towards bluer colors that can be explained by enhanced recent bursts of star formation. There is also no obvious color bimodality, because the HI selection restricts the sample to bluer, actively star forming systems, diminishing the importance of the red sequence. Rising star formation rates are still required to explain the colors of galaxies bluer than g-r < 0.3. We also demonstrate that the colors of the bluest galaxies in our sample are dominated by emission lines and that stellar population synthesis models alone (without emission lines) are not adequate for reproducing many of the galaxy colors. These emission lines produce large changes in the r-i colors but leave the g-r color largely unchanged. In addition, we find an increase in the dispersion of galaxy colors at low masses that may be the result of a change in the star formation process in low-mass galaxies.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures, published in AJ (138, 796); replaced Figure 16 with higher resolution versio

Has education lost sight of children?

The reflections presented in this chapter are informed by clinical and personal experiences of school education in the UK. There are many challenges for children and young people in the modern education system and for the professionals who support them. In the UK, there are significant gaps between the highly selective education provided to those who pay privately for it and to the majority of those educated in the state-funded system. Though literacy rates have improved around the world, many children, particularly boys, do not finish their education for reasons such as boredom, behavioural difficulties or because education does not ‘pay’. Violence, bullying, and sexual harassment are issues faced by many children in schools and there are disturbing trends of excluding children who present with behavioural problems at school whose origins are not explored. Excluded children are then educated with other children who may also have multiple problems which often just make the situation worse. The experience of clinicians suggests that school-related mental health problems are increasing in severity. Are mental health services dealing with the consequences of an education system that is not meeting children’s needs? An education system that is testing- and performance-based may not be serving many children well if it is driving important decisions about them at increasingly younger ages. Labelling of children and setting them on educational career paths can occur well before they reach secondary schools, limiting potential very early on in their developmental trajectory. Furthermore, the emphasis at school on testing may come at the expense of creativity and other forms of intelligence, which are also valuable and important. Meanwhile the employment marketplace requires people with widely different skills, with an emphasis on innovation, creativity, and problem solving. Is education losing sight of the children it is educating

Persistent poverty and children's cognitive development: evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

We use data from the four sweeps of the UK Millennium Cohort Study of children born at the turn of the 21st century to document the effect that poverty, and in particular persistent poverty, has on their cognitive development in their early years. Using structural equation modelling, we show that children born into poverty have significantly lower test scores at age 3, age 5 and age 7 years, and that continually living in poverty in their early years has a cumulative negative effect on their cognitive development. For children who are persistently in poverty throughout their early years, their cognitive development test scores at age 7 years are almost 20 percentile ranks lower than children who have never experienced poverty, even after controlling for a wide range of background characteristics and parental investment

Characterization of 3 PET Tracers for Quantification of Mitochondrial and Synaptic Function in Healthy Human Brain: {18}^F-BCPP-EF, {11}^C-SA-4503, and {11}^C-UCB-J

Mitochondrial complex 1 is involved in maintaining brain bioenergetics; σ-1 receptor responds to neuronal stress; and synaptic vesicle protein 2A reflects synaptic integrity. Expression of each of these proteins is altered in neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we characterize the kinetic behavior of 3 PET radioligands—{18}^F-BCPP-EF, {11}^C-SA-4503, and {11}^C-UCB-J for the measurement of mitochondrial complex 1, σ-1 receptor, and synaptic vesicle protein 2A, respectively, and determine appropriate analysis workflows for their application in future studies of the in vivo molecular pathology of these diseases. METHODS: Twelve human subjects underwent dynamic PET scans with each radioligand, including associated arterial blood sampling. A range of kinetic models was investigated to identify an optimal kinetic analysis method for each radioligand and a suitable acquisition duration. RESULTS: All 3 radioligands readily entered the brain and yielded heterogeneous uptake consistent with the known distribution of the targets. The optimal models determined for the regional estimates of volume of distribution were multilinear analysis 1 (MA1) and the 2-tissue-compartment model for {18}^F-BCPP-EF, MA1 for 11}^C-SA-4503, and both MA1 and the 1-tissue-compartment model for {11}^C-UCB-J, respectively, provided good estimates of regional volume of distribution values. An effect of age was observed on {18}^F-BCPP-EF and {11}^C-UCB-J signal in the caudate. CONCLUSION: These ligands can be assessed for their potential to stratify patients or monitor the progression of molecular neuropathology in neurodegenerative diseases

Family composition and age at menarche: findings from the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Study

This research was funded by The University of St Andrews and NHS Health Scotland.Background Early menarche has been associated with father absence, stepfather presence and adverse health consequences in later life. This article assesses the association of different family compositions with the age at menarche. Pathways are explored which may explain any association between family characteristics and pubertal timing. Methods Cross-sectional, international data on the age at menarche, family structure and covariates (age, psychosomatic complaints, media consumption, physical activity) were collected from the 2009–2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The sample focuses on 15-year old girls comprising 36,175 individuals across 40 countries in Europe and North America (N = 21,075 for age at menarche). The study examined the association of different family characteristics with age at menarche. Regression and path analyses were applied incorporating multilevel techniques to adjust for the nested nature of data within countries. Results Living with mother (Cohen’s d = .12), father (d = .08), brothers (d = .04) and sisters (d = .06) are independently associated with later age at menarche. Living in a foster home (d = −.16), with ‘someone else’ (d = −.11), stepmother (d = −.10) or stepfather (d = −.06) was associated with earlier menarche. Path models show that up to 89% of these effects can be explained through lifestyle and psychological variables. Conclusions Earlier menarche is reported amongst those with living conditions other than a family consisting of two biological parents. This can partly be explained by girls’ higher Body Mass Index in these families which is a biological determinant of early menarche. Lower physical activity and elevated psychosomatic complaints were also more often found in girls in these family environments.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Widespread cell stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in early Alzheimer’s Disease

Cell stress and impaired oxidative phosphorylation are central to mechanisms of synaptic loss and neurodegeneration in the cellular pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We quantified the in vivo density of the endoplasmic reticulum stress marker, the sigma 1 receptor (S1R) using [11C]SA4503 PET, as well as that of mitochondrial complex I (MC1) with [18F]BCPP-EF and the pre-synaptic vesicular protein SV2A with [11C]UCB-J in 12 patients with early AD and in 16 cognitively normal controls. We integrated these molecular measures with assessments of regional brain volumes and brain perfusion (CBF) measured with MRI arterial spin labelling. 8 AD patients were followed longitudinally to estimate rates of change with disease progression over 12-18 months. The AD patients showed widespread increases in S1R (≤ 27%) and regional decreases in MC1 (≥ -28%), SV2A (≥ -25%), brain volume (≥ -23%), and CBF (≥ -26%). [18F]BCPP-EF PET MC1 density (≥ -12%) and brain volumes (≥ -5%) were further reduced at follow up in brain regions consistent with the differences between AD patients and controls at baseline. Exploratory analyses showing associations of MC1, SV2A and S1R density with cognitive changes at baseline and longitudinally with AD, but not in controls, suggested a loss of metabolic functional reserve with disease. Our study thus provides novel in vivo evidence for widespread cellular stress and bioenergetic abnormalities in early AD and that they may be clinically meaningful