Oxytocin receptor genotype moderates the association between maternal prenatal stress and infant early self-regulation

Introduction: Maternal prenatal stress may have long-term adverse consequences for child development. Accumulating evidence shows that the oxytocin-receptor genotype may play a role in differential susceptibility to early-life adversity, but no studies have examined whether this moderation extends to the prenatal stress exposures. Methods: In the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, a sample of 1173 mother-child dyads were examined. We studied the possible moderating effect of the cumulative effect of infant oxytocin-receptor risk genotypes (rs53576GG and rs2254298A) in the association between maternal prenatal stress, and infant negative reactivity and emerging self-regulation at 6 months of age. Results: The number of OTr risk genotypes moderated the association between maternal prenatal anxiety and infant self-regulation, implying a cumulative effect of genotype, although effects sizes were small. In infants with two risk genotypes, a negative association between prenatal anxiety and self-regulation was observed, whereas in infants with one or no risk genotypes, the association between maternal prenatal anxiety and temperament was non-significant. Conclusion: Oxytocin-receptor genotype may moderate the association of maternal stress during pregnancy and child social-emotional development. Possible mechanisms for this moderation effect are discussed. Further studies with a more comprehensive polygenic approach are needed to confirm these results.Peer reviewe

När makten blir din kompis - en studie i polisens kommunikation på Facebook

Today, many organizations, both within the private and the public sector, have developed a presence in different social media channels. It is of most importance to perpetually scrutinize entities because of their position of power in the society. This study examines how the Swedish Police use Facebook as a strategic tool to communicate with citizens, but also what the potential advantages and disadvantages could be with building a strong public sector brand. We have carried out a qualitative study, with empirical data gathered through observations and content analysis from three different Facebook pages, and their national social media guidelines. Our theoretical framework is based on theories regarding communications, corporate branding, legitimacy and transparency in the public sector. Our analysis shows that the Swedish Police, intentionally or unintentionally, use strategies from corporate branding, including brand-as-a-person and storytelling. Furthermore, we have found that too much transparency and informal communication can lead to citizens distrusting the Swedish Police’s competence and therefore undermine their legitimacy. Ergo, we stress the importance of well-defined social media strategies for a public sector organization to distinguish the real purpose of their social media presence.Idag har många organisationer, både inom privat och offentlig sektor, etablerat en närvaro på olika sociala medieplattformar. Det är av högsta relevans att granska aktörer i samhället som innehar en stor maktposition. Denna studie undersöker hur den svenska polisen använder Facebook som ett strategiskt verktyg för att kommunicera med medborgare, men också vilka möjligheter och faror som finns kopplade till byggandet av ett starkt varumärke inom offentlig sektor. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie, med insamlat empiriskt material från observationer och innehållsanalyser av tre olika Facebook-sidor, samt polisen nationella handledningsdokument för sociala medier. Det teoretiska ramverket baseras på teorier om kommunikation, varumärkesbyggande, legitimitet och transparens inom offentlig sektor. Vår analys visar att den svenska polisen, medvetet eller omedvetet, använder strategier inom varumärkesbyggande, så som brand-as-aperson och storytelling. Vidare visar analysen att för mycket transparens och informell kommunikation kan leda till att medborgare tappar tron på den svenska polisens kompetens och därigenom undermineras deras legitimitet. Vi vill därför poängtera vikten av väldefinierade sociala mediestrategier för organisationer inom offentlig sektor, för att kunna urskilja deras egentliga syfte med en närvaro i sociala medier

Kön, Diagnos och Mognad - en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av information om transsexualism på hemsidor

This study aims to examine how the concepts of gender, diagnose, maturation and transsexualism are described and socially constructed on websites. To understand how the concepts we prepared to interpret nine sites using Berger and Luckmann's social constructivist perspective, and by Foucault´s theory about power. The theories focus on that we are living within a society which perpetuates normative gender roles. The different owners of the websites presented concepts differ depending on the purpose they had with their information. Summary we saw during our work how complex all the concepts were and how difficult it was to find a unified description of the concepts. Although we live in a society well developed we did find during our work how the gender roles is still solid and it seems like we live in a society hard to understand and accept the grey area between the constructed gender roles man and woman. Our results shows that through the power of language and how we use it we keep the gender roles alive and maintains the society´s way of looking at gender as a specific role

Miljöhänsyn vid offentlig upphandling

One of the biggest challenges in the human history is to prevent environmental pollution. Everybody has an indirect or direct influence on the environment through his or her consumption. The stakeholders are not just interested in price and quality, they are also interested in the circumstances of production and how this affects the environment. By taking environmental concern in public procurement it is possible to speed up the environmental adjustment of services and products. Environmental awareness has become more and more self evident in the environmental work. For a purchasing manager it can be difficult to carry out an environmental procurement. The uncertainty of to which extent environmental demands that can be made in the procurement process may lead to decreased environmental demands or in the worst-case scenario will not be made at all. The aim of the master's thesis is to examine how the Swedish municipalities make their environmental demands at the public procurement. We also want to examine if the local authorities inquire that their purchases they make are economical, environmental and socially sustainable. The main questions in this study are; Which kind of information or guidance do a purchaser needs to make environmental demands in a greater extent? Which possibilities and/or obstacles are there with the laws, when it comes to environmental procurement? Which environmental concern is taken in procurement of wood and paper products? A selection of eight municipalities has been done based on differences in geographical location, number of inhabitants (small vs. large) and preconceived, reputational environmental awareness. The reason is to analyze differences and similarities in a comparative case study. Each case study is based on personal interviews and available official material about the municipality public procurement process. The theoretical limits of this thesis lay within the chosen theories that describes and explains the notions of purchasing and public procurement. In the empirical background the thesis has been limited to the structure of municipalities and laws and program of action that controls public procurement. The chapter also contains means to have an environmental procurement at municipalities and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The thesis is focused on paper and wood based products. Especial focus at FSC who "shall promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests". The conclusions in our study are that the municipalities are well aware of that they should take environmental concern at their procurement process. They are not allowed to take concern to a specific label because it is discriminating according to The Act on Public Procurement. All the municipalities in our study use the EKU-tool, but some of them use it more frequently. In our study of the eight municipalities, seven of them have a purchasing policy and five of them have an environmental policy. We consider that municipalities at least should have a purchasing policy and that it is an advantage to have an environmental policy, either as a part of their purchasing policy or as a document of its own. Concerning procurement of wood and paper based products no special tools are used. The municipalities use the same policies and tools as used for other products. All the municipalities in the study are acquainted with FSC, but the knowledge of the meaning of the label varies. Only one of the municipalities declared that they use the criteria behind FSC frequently. We recommend that FSC should market themselves within the public sector.En av vår tids största utmaning är att förebygga miljöförstöringen. Alla påverkar direkt eller indirekt miljön genom sin konsumtion. I dagens samhälle går utvecklingen mot att organisationers intressenter inte längre enbart ifrågasätter pris och kvalitet, utan allt fler vill veta under vilka omständigheter produktionen sker och hur denna påverkar miljön. Genom att ta hänsyn till miljöaspekter vid offentlig upphandling finns det stora möjligheter att påskynda miljöanpassningen av tjänster och produkter. Att ha ett miljövänligt ”tänk” blir allt mer en självklarhet i individers och organisationers miljöarbeten. För den enskilda upphandlaren kan det bli problematiskt när en miljövänlig upphandlig sker. Osäkerheten om vilka miljökrav som kan ställas bidrar till att kraven minskas eller i värsta fall inte kommer att ställas alls. Syftet med projektet är att ta reda på om svenska kommuner ställer miljöetiska krav vid offentlig upphandling. Vi avser dessutom att undersöka om kommuner efterfrågar att de inköp de gör är ekonomiskt, miljömässigt och socialt hållbara. De huvudsakliga frågorna i studien är; Vilken slags information eller vägledning behöver upphandlare ha, för att i större utsträckning kunna ställa miljökrav? Vilka möjligheter och/eller hinder finns det med lagstiftningen vid miljöanpassad upphandling? Vilken miljöhänsyn tas det vid upphandling av trä- och pappersprodukter? Vi har valt att i studien avgränsa oss till åtta kommuner och dessa kommuner har valts efter dess läge i landet och dess storlek. Detta har gjorts för att se om det finns några skillnader eller likheter mellan dem. Vi kontaktade inköpschefen/upphandlingschefen på aktuell kommun för intervju. Uppsatsens teoretiska avgränsningar ligger i valda teorier som klargör och beskriver begreppen inköp och offentlig upphandling. I den empiriska bakgrunden avgränsas arbetet till att handla om kommunstruktur, lagar och handlingsprogram som styr offentlig upphandling, hjälpmedel för miljöanpassade upphandlingar hos kommuner och Forest Stewardship Council, FSC. Särskild fokus ligger på FSC som ”uppmuntrar till ett miljöanpassat, samhällsnyttigt och ekonomiskt livskraftigt bruk av världens skogar, genom att knyta brukandet till konsumtion”. I denna studie har vi kommit fram till att kommunerna är väl medvetna om att de ska ta miljöhänsyn vid sina upphandlingar. Enligt lagen om offentlig upphandling, LOU (1992:1528), får inte upphandlare ta hänsyn till ett specifikt miljömärke vid upphandlingar eftersom det är en diskriminerande handling. Alla kommuner i vår undersökning använder sig av verktyget Ekologiskt Hållbar Upphandling, EKU, men vissa använder den mer frekvent. I vår studie av åtta kommuner har sju stycken av dem en inköpspolicy och fem stycken av dem en miljöpolicy. Vi anser att kommuner i alla fall bör ha en inköpspolicy och att det är en stor fördel om de har en miljöpolicy, som en del av inköpspolicyn eller som ett eget dokument. Vid upphandling av trä- och pappersprodukter används inga ytterligare verktyg, utan där tas det samma hänsyn som vid upphandlingar av andra produkter. Alla de studerade kommunerna har kännedom om FSC, men deras kunskap om vad detta miljömärke innebär varierar. Av de studerade kommunerna är det endast en kommun som säkert kan säga att de har upphandlat med dess kriterier och att de gör det frekvent. Vi anser att FSC borde marknadsföra sig inom den offentliga sektorn

Nuorten depressio : Tietoa nuorten kanssa työskenteleville aikuisille

Liitteenä mielialakysely RBDI(2002, päivitetty 2006

Association of depression and anxiety with different aspects of dental anxiety in pregnant mothers and their partners

Funding: Academy of Finland and Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation.Objectives The aim was to confirm the factor structure of Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and to investigate whether the association of these factors with general anxiety and depression varied across gender. Methods The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study (www.finnbrain.fi) data from the first collection point at gestational week 14 were used. Of the invited participants (n = 5790), 3808 (66%) expectant mothers and 2623 fathers or other partners of the mother agreed to participate, and 3095 (81.3%) mothers and 2011 (76.7%) fathers returned the self‐report questionnaire. Dental anxiety was measured with the MDAS, general anxiety symptoms with Symptom Checklist‐90 (anxiety subscale) and depressive symptoms with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) was conducted to test the equivalence of the factor structure and multiple group SEM (MGSEM) to test the configural invariance (unconstrained model) and metric invariance (structural weights model), across genders. Results Of those consenting, 3022 (98%) women and 1935 (96%) men answered the MDAS. The MGCFA indicated good convergent validity for the two‐factor model for MDAS, but somewhat low discriminant validity (factors demonstrated 72% shared variance). The MDAS items loaded clearly higher for the assigned factor than to the other factor (differences in loadings >0.2), indicating that the 2‐factor model has merit. According to the final MGSEM model, anxiety symptoms were directly related to anticipatory dental anxiety, but not to treatment‐related dental anxiety. Conclusions When assessing dental anxiety with MDAS, considering also its two factors may help clinicians in understanding the nature of patient's dental anxiety.PostprintPeer reviewe

Parent's self-reported tooth brushing and use of fluoridated toothpaste: Associations with their one-year-old child's preventive oral health behaviour

Objective The aim of the study was to examine if the tooth brushing frequency and use of fluoridated toothpaste of the mother and father were associated with the tooth brushing frequency and use of fluoridated toothpaste for their 1-year-old child. Methods This cross-sectional study is part of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Questionnaire data were obtained from 1672 mothers and 867 fathers on tooth brushing and use of fluoridated toothpaste, age, education, number of siblings and parity (when the child was 1-year-old). For 763 families (mother and father), data from both parents were available. Tooth brushing was dichotomized to at least twice daily (2× day) and less than 2× day, and use of fluoridated toothpaste for child to at least once daily and less than once daily. The association between brushing of child's teeth (both parents less than 2× day) and use of fluoridated toothpaste for the child (both parents less than once daily) with parent's own tooth brushing was modelled with logistic regression analyses adjusted for family-related variables (parents' age and education, number of older siblings) using odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results Families in which both parents brushed their own teeth less than 2× day were more likely to brush their child's teeth less than 2× day than families in which both parents brushed their own teeth 2× day (OR = 9.23; 95%CI = 5.42–15.69). The likelihood of not brushing the child's teeth 2× day was less strong when at least one of the parents brushed his/her own teeth 2× day (mother 2× day: OR = 1.97; 95%CI = 1.25–3.10; father 2× day: OR = 2.85; 95%CI = 1.51–5.40). Conclusions Less frequent tooth brushing of both mothers and fathers was strongly associated with less frequent tooth brushing of their child. When educating parents on child oral home care, parents' own home care and inclusion of fathers also need more attention.publishedVersio

Trait reactance and trust in doctors as predictors of vaccination behavior, vaccine attitudes, and use of complementary and alternative medicine in parents of young children

ObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to investigate whether anti-vaccination attitudes and behavior, and positive attitudes to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), are driven by trait reactance and a distrust in medical doctors.MethodsThe sample consisted of 770 Finnish parents who filled out an online survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine if trait reactance plays a role in vaccination decisions, vaccine attitudes, and in the use of CAM, and whether that relationship is mediated by trust in medical doctors.ResultsParents with higher trait reactance had lower trust in doctors, more negative attitudes to vaccines, a higher likelihood of not accepting vaccines for their children and themselves, and a higher likelihood to use CAM treatments that are not included in evidence-based medicine. Our analyses also revealed associations between vaccination behavior and CAM use and vaccine attitudes and CAM use, but there was no support for the previous notion that these associations would be explained by trait reactance and trust in doctors.ConclusionsTaken together, higher trait reactance seems to be relevant for attitudes and behaviors that go against conventional medicine, because trait reactance is connected to a distrust in medical doctors. Our findings also suggest that high trait reactance and low trust in doctors function differently for different people: For some individuals they might be associated with anti-vaccination attitudes and behavior, while for others they might be related to CAM use. We speculate that this is because people differ in what is important to them, leading them to react against different aspects of conventional medicine