Children’s Views About Their Future Career and Family Involvement: Associations With Children’s Gender Schemas and Parents’ Involvement in Work and Family Roles

Substantial gender disparities in career advancement are still apparent, for instance in the gender pay gap, the overrepresentation of women in parttime work, and the underrepresentation of women in managerial positions. Regarding the developmental origins of these gender disparities, the current study examined whether children’s views about future career and family involvement were associated with children’s own gender schemas (gender stereotypes, gender identity) and parents’ career- and family-related gender roles. Participants were 142 Dutch families with a child between the ages of 6 and 12 years old (M = 9.80, SD = 1.48, 60% girls). The families had different compositions (1 parent, 2 parents, 1 to 3 children). Children completed a computer task assessing gender stereotypes about toys and questionnaires on gender identity (i.e., felt similarity to same- and other-gender children) and their views about future career and family involvement. Parents reported their occupation, work hours, and task division in the home, which were combined in a composite variable reflecting gender-typicality of career and family involvement. Generalized estimation equations were used to take into account dependency between family members. Results revealed that parents’, and especially mothers’, gender-typical career and family involvement was associated with children’s gender-typical views about future career and family involvement. In addition, children’s felt similarity to the same gender was associated with children’s gender-typical expectations about career and family involvement. These findings suggest that parents’ career, work hours, and task division in the home, together play an important role in how their children envision their future work and family roles. Children themselves also play an active role in developing this vision for the future by their own gender identity, specifically by how similar they feel to individuals of the same gender. To reduce gender disparities in the occupational and domestic domain, programs need to be designed that focus on parental role modeling in the family as well as children’s gender identity development

Like Parent, like Child: General and Specific Associations Between Parents’ and Children’s Binary Gender Identity in a Gender Egalitarian Context

There is ample scientific evidence for the importance of parental gender socialization in children’s binary gender development. Surprisingly, little is known about the role of parents’ own gender identity in the binary gender identity development of their children. Therefore, the present study investigated the association between parents’ and children’s binary gender identity (i.e., similarity to same- and other-gender individuals) in a sample of 142 Dutch families with a child between the ages of 6 and 12 years old. The Dutch context is characterized by relatively high gender equality. Both parents and their children answered questions about their similarity to same-gender and other-gender individuals. Generalized estimating equations revealed that parents’ same-gender similarity and parents’ other-gender similarity were positively associated with their children’s same- and other-gender-similarity, respectively. In addition, more other-gender similarity in parents was associated with less same-gender similarity in girls, but more same-gender similarity in boys. Parents who reported high similarity with both genders were more likely to have children who also reported higher similarity with both genders. These findings indicate that parents’ own binary gender identity is related in general and specific ways to their children’s binary gender identity development. Parents should be made aware of their role in children’s binary gender identity development. Yet, more research on different types of gender identity in parents and their children is necessary

Pictures of preterm infants elicit increased affective responses and reduced reward-motivation or perspective taking in the maternal brain

Preterm-birth increases the risk of several physical, cognitive, neuromotor, and psychosocial problems in children, and is also related to difficulties in the parent-child relationship. Research suggests that the development of early parent-child interactions in general is affected by deviations from typical infant facial characteristics, which may also be important in the case of small, preterm born infants. Therefore, we examined mothers' (N = 22, of whom 17 had no direct experience with preterm birth) neural responses to pictures of preterm and fullterm infants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also explored whether neural responses to preterm and full-term infants correlated with mothers' self-reported tendencies to be nurturing and protective with children, and with mothers' ratings of affection or aversion toward pictures of preterm infants. Results revealed that, compared to pictures of full-term infants, those of preterm infants elicited more activity in specific areas of the brain (dmPFC, right insula, left caudate, hippocampi, parahippocampi, and PAG), that have previously been associated with processing of negative emotions and with empathy. In addition, less activity was seen in one area of the brain (vmPFC) known to be associated with reward-motivation or mental state understanding and perspective-taking. Higher self-reported maternal nurturance was associated with increased activity to pictures of preterm infants vs full-term infants in the caudate, which might reflect approach- or reward-related processing. To conclude, neural responses to preterm infants are related to reward-motivation, mentalizing, negative emotions, and empathy. Future studies should examine whether such neural processing of preterm infant stimuli might underlie difficulties in the parent-child relationship of parents with a preterm child

What a cute baby! Preliminary evidence from a fMRI study for the association between mothers ? neural responses to infant faces and activation of the parental care system

Infant facial characteristics, i.e., baby schema, are thought to automatically elicit parenting behavior and affective orientation toward infants. Only a few studies, conducted in non-parents, have directly examined the neural underpinnings of this baby schema effect by manipulating distinctiveness of baby schema in infant faces. This study aims to further our understanding of the intuitive nature of parenting, by studying the baby schema effect in mothers of young children (at least one child aged between 2 and 6 years old). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine mothers’ (N = 23) neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces varying in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, it was studied how this neural activation to infant faces was associated with maternal nurturance. Results revealed that infant faces elicited widespread activation in bilateral visual cortices, the hippocampus, sensory-motor areas, parietal and frontal cortices, and the insula, which was not modulated by the distinctiveness of baby schema in the infant faces. Furthermore, higher self-reported maternal nurturance was related to increased neural responses to infant faces in the putamen and amygdala, brain regions known to be associated with reward and salience processing. These findings could suggest that in our small sample of mothers some of the core networks involved in reward and salience processing might be less sensitive to variation in distinctiveness of baby schema. Also, unfamiliar infant faces seem to be rewarding only for mothers who report high nurturance. These findings should be considered preliminary, because they need to be replicated in studies with larger samples

Callous-unemotional traits and anxiety in adolescents: a latent profile analysis to identify different types of antisocial behavior in a high-risk community sample

OBJECTIVE: Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with a more severe and chronic trajectory of antisocial behavior. The present study aimed to identify different classes of CU and anxiety and to compare these classes on overt and covert antisocial behavior and several clinical correlates. METHOD: In a prospective high-risk cohort of adolescents (N = 679; mean age = 14.77, SD = 0.81), latent profile analysis was conducted using CU traits and anxiety symptoms as indicators, and multi-informant aggressive and rule breaking behavior as distal outcomes. Post-hoc analyses with binary logistic regression and a series of ANCOVA were performed on identified classes assessing violent aggression, property offending, and clinical correlates. RESULTS: Three classes were found, a reference group (low CU, low anxiety; N = 500), a high CU-low anxiety group (N = 98), and an intermediate CU-high anxious group (N = 81). The high CU-low anxiety group scored highest on property offenses, while the intermediate CU-high anxious group scored highest on aggressive behavior. The intermediate CU-high anxious group scored highest on psychotic experiences, while the high CU group scored highest on internet gaming addiction problems and bullying victimization. CONCLUSION: These findings provide further evidence for diverse variants of CU traits in a high-risk community sample. Future prospective studies should point out whether and to what extent adolescents with CU traits with and without anxiety develop criminal careers and psychiatric disorders in adulthood

Inhibitory Control Across the Preschool Years: Developmental Changes and Associations with Parenting

The normative developmental course of inhibitory control between 2.5 and 6.5 years, and associations with maternal and paternal sensitivity and intrusiveness were tested. The sample consisted of 383 children (52.5% boys). During four annual waves, mothers and fathers reported on their children’s inhibitory control using the Children\u27s Behavior Questionnaire. During the first wave, mothers’ and fathers’ sensitivity and intrusiveness were observed and coded with the Emotional Availability Scales. Inhibitory control exhibited partial scalar invariance over time, and increased in a decelerating rate. For both mothers and fathers, higher levels of sensitivity were associated with a higher initial level of children\u27s inhibitory control, whereas higher levels of intrusiveness predicted a slower increase in children\u27s inhibitory control

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder symptoms as a risk factor for postpartum depressive symptoms

For women with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) trait symptoms, coping with childbearing and parenting could be associated with postpartum depressive symptoms. Therefore, the possible relationship between OCPD trait symptoms and trajectories of postpartum depressive symptoms was examined. A cohort of 1427 women was followed from late pregnancy until 12 months’ postpartum. Trajectories of postpartum depressive symptoms were determined using growth mixture modeling with five repeated assessments. Next, the relationship between OCPD trait symptoms and these trajectories was examined through multinomial regression. Three postpartum depressive symptom trajectories were identified: (1) low symptoms (92%), (2) increasing-decreasing symptoms (inverted u-shape) (5%), and (3) increasing symptoms (3%). OCPD trait symptoms were associated with a higher likelihood of the trajectories increasing-decreasing symptoms (OR 1.26; 95% CI 1.14–1.39) and increasing symptoms (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.02–1.32), compared to reference trajectory (low symptoms), adjusted for age, educational level, unplanned pregnancy, previous depressive episode (s), and parity