Developmental and evolutionary assumptions in a study about the impact of premature birth and low income on mother–infant interaction

In order to study the impact of premature birth and low income on mother–infant interaction, four Portuguese samples were gathered: full-term, middle-class (n=99); premature, middle-class (n=63); full-term, low income (n=22); and premature, low income (n=21). Infants were filmed in a free play situation with their mothers, and the results were scored using the CARE Index. By means of multinomial regression analysis, social economic status (SES) was found to be the best predictor of maternal sensitivity and infant cooperative behavior within a set of medical and social factors. Contrary to the expectations of the cumulative risk perspective, two factors of risk (premature birth together with low SES) were as negative for mother–infant interaction as low SES solely. In this study, as previous studies have shown, maternal sensitivity and infant cooperative behavior were highly correlated, as was maternal control with infant compliance. Our results further indicate that, when maternal lack of responsiveness is high, the infant displays passive behavior, whereas when the maternal lack of responsiveness is medium, the infant displays difficult behavior. Indeed, our findings suggest that, in these cases, the link between types of maternal and infant interactive behavior is more dependent on the degree of maternal lack of responsiveness than it is on birth status or SES. The results will be discussed under a developmental and evolutionary reasonin

Effects of physical education, extracurricular sports activities, and leisure satisfaction on adolescent aggressive behavior: A latent growth modeling approach

The present study aimed to investigate the longitudinal influence of physical education classes, extracurricular sports activities, and leisure satisfaction on aggressive behavior among South Korean adolescents. Data were drawn from the Korea Youth Panel Survey. We used latent growth curve modeling to explain the growth trajectory of adolescent aggressive behaviors and a multi-group analysis to investigate gender differences in aggressive behavior. The results indicated that adolescents' aggressive behavior significantly changed with age. There were significant gender-based differences in the level of and changes in aggressive behavior over time. Both extracurricular sports activities and leisure satisfaction had significant influences on the changes in adolescents' aggressive behavior with age, whereas physical education classes did not