Leptodactylus rugosus

Number of Pages: 5Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Maternal and Adolescent Depression: The Role of Genetic Variability and Telomere Length

Research has found an association between depression, telomere length, and poor health. Interestingly, research has found children of mothers with depression might also have shorter telomeres. A mother’s depression increases a child’s risk for depression through heritability and environmental factors, which has deleterious effects for child health. Further, the 5-HTT genotype could moderate the effects of maternal depression on child some socioemotional outcomes, but the moderating effect of maternal depression on child telomere length and depression has not been tested. This study tested the moderating effect of 5-HTT genotype and child sex for the effect of maternal depression on child and adolescent depression through child telomere length. From a subset (N=2,884) of the large and diverse Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing dataset, we found no support for the mediation or moderation hypotheses. Additional research is needed to better understand the mechanisms through which maternal depression affects child depressive outcomes

Risky Driving in Adolescents and Young Adults with Childhood ADHD: Mediation by ADHD Symptoms, Irritability, and Conduct Problems at Follow-up

As driving is a task that requires vigilance and planful behavior, adolescents and young adults with a history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are an important population to study in regard to risky driving behaviors. This study provides a comprehensive examination of risky driving behaviors- beyond tickets and accidents and including alcohol-impaired driving- in a large sample of adolescents and young adults diagnosed in childhood with ADHD and demographically similar community controls without childhood ADHD. Self-report of citations and accidents, alcohol impaired driving, and risky driving behaviors (speeding, following too closely, etc.) were examined, in relation to the presence or absence of a childhood diagnosis of ADHD, potential age related interactions, and the self- and parent-report of current levels of hyperactivity-impulsivity, inattention, irritability, and conduct problems. Results indicate that probands were more likely than controls to have ever driven without a license, to receive more traffic citations, and to be involved in more accidents; there was a trend toward more license suspensions in the ADHD group. No group differences were found for the risky driving and alcohol-impaired driving scales. Multiple regression revealed that hyperactivity-impulsivity was associated with risky driving above and beyond the contribution of conduct problems, while irritability at follow-up was significantly associated with alcohol-impaired driving. In addition, exploratory mediational analyses indicated that hyperactivity-impulsivity and irritability at follow-up (when tested separately) were significant mediators of the association between childhood ADHD and number of tickets and accidents. Findings inconsistent with previous literature are explained in terms of the validity of self-report in the ADHD population, the nature of the proband sample, and potential measurement bias. The unique contributions of hyperactivity-impulsivity, inattention, irritability, and conduct problems are discussed

Plays and Punks; Or, Aphra Behn and the Restoration Woman

In many ways, the Restoration Period in England (1660-1700) is defined by its interest in sexuality. Following the Interregnum (1649-1660), sexuality became a mechanism to distinguish royalists from the “puritanical followers” of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), particularly through the emergence of the libertine (Novak 56). Libertinism “made the senses a primary source of knowledge,” which challenged “conventional morality” through ritualistic fornication, drunkenness, and adultery (Staves 20). Men, like John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) wrote bawdy poetry celebrating their sexual conquests. Libertines were also regularly featured in Restoration drama, with playwrights like William Wycherley (1640-1716) and George Etherege (1636-1692) depicting them as heroes of their plays. Wycherley’s The Country Wife (1675) follows Horner, a rake feigning impotence to cuckold other men by seducing their wives. Similarly, Etherege’s The Man of Mode (1676) follows Dorimant, another libertine, as he tries to win Harriet while distancing himself from his past affairs with Ms. Loveit and her friend, Belinda, all while contemplating the possibility of cuckolding his “friend” Young Bellair. Libertines epitomize Restoration comedy, both in their use of sex as a source of power and in their more general “freedom from the conventions of society” (Novak 56). Not unlike her male contemporaries, Aphra Behn’s (1640-1689) poetry and plays display her keen interest in sexuality. However, Behn differs from Rochester, Wycherley, and Etherege because she is primarily concerned with female sexuality. Throughout her work, women express their sexuality openly. For instance, in her best known play, The Rover (1677), Behn introduces Hellena and Florinda, two young women who disguise themselves as gypsies in order to flirt with sexual liberation (if not actually to engage in explicitly sexual activity). Hellena is disgusted that her brother thinks her fit for a convent, asking Florinda, “What dost thou see about me that is unfit for love? Have I not a world of youth?...a vigor desirable?...and sense enough to know how all these ought to be employed to the best advantage?” (The Rover l. 47-51). Similarly, Behn’s poem “The Disappointment” follows Cloris, a woman “with a charming languishment” who is disappointed by her would be lover’s impotency (l. 13). Throughout the poem, Behn clearly depicts Cloris an as an equally willing (and perhaps more willing) participant in the affair. The same can be said for “The Golden Age,” which laments the loss of free sexuality when “nymphs were free, no nice, no coy disdain / denied their joys” (l. 98-99). In short, throughout her various works, Behn depicts women with a level of sexual awareness—and sexual interest—very much in keeping with that ascribed to the male rakes by authors such as Wycherley and Etherege. As much as Behn wants to celebrate female sexuality in her writing, however, she simultaneously signals her awareness of the impossibility for a Restoration woman to live as a libertine. In the first place, according to libertine culture, women are designed “by nature for men’s pleasure,” even if that pleasure requires the use of sexual violence (Staves 21). Behn’s plays The Amorous Prince (1671), The Revenge (1680) The City Heiress (1682), and The Lucky Chance (1686) all depict women being raped or nearly raped. In The Rover, for instance, Florinda is nearly raped by the ostensible “hero” of the play, Willmore. Nor is sexual violence all that women had to fear. While in disguise, Hellena flirts with Willmore, but rejects his advances because she understands the risks for a woman attempting to live as a libertine. “Why must we be either guilty of fornication or murder if we converse with you men,” she complains to Willmore, “And is there no difference between leave to love me, and leave to lie with me?” (Behn 1.2.229-230). For all her stated interest in sex, Hellena maintains her guardedness and her chastity until the end of the play, for fear of being left with “a cradle full of noise and mischief, with a pack of repentance at my back” if Willmore impregnates her without marrying her (Behn 5.1.495-497). By the end of The Rover, Hellena is on the way to marrying Willmore rather than living the life of a female libertine. Indeed, there seems to be no “single life” available to her at all—at least not one Behn can imagine; it is no accident that Hellena is dead by the beginning of The Rover Part II (1680). In a sense, killing off Hellena is the closest Behn can come to imagining her as sexually liberated. Aphra Behn’s conservative political values may contribute to her inability to imagine a way for women to embrace their sexuality freely. Behn’s writing demonstrates a liberal perspective toward female sexuality, but politically she was a conservative. According to Melinda Zook’s article, “Religious Nonconformity and the Problem of Dissent in the Works of Aphra Behn and Mary Astell,” Behn’s real concern is “bitter partisan politics and religious crisis” rather than “the treatment of women” (Zook 99). In “Drama and Political Crisis,” Susan J. Owen writes that Behn “employs methods and modes reminiscent of 1660s comedies to attack the Whigs” in plays like The Feign’d Curtizans (1679) and The Roundheads (1681). According to Janet Todd, Aphra Behn favored “divine-right monarchy and elitist aristocratic culture” and expressed “nothing but contempt” for democracy (5). Behn was not alone in her political conservatism and social liberalism. At first, Aphra Behn and Mary Astell seem to be on opposite sides of the social and political spectrum, but scholarship frequently links them together as “early feminists and ardent Tories,” making them the “prototype ‘Tory Feminists’” (Zook 99). Behn considered marriage based in a financial agreement “virtual prostitution” (Staves 16). For Astell, if a woman wanted to be free, she “must remain single—a married woman has a religious duty to be obedient to her husband, just as a political subject owes allegiance to the Monarch, just as a human being is responsible to God” (Taylor 69). For women who remain single, Astell proposes “all-female religious academies” where they can take on academic pursuits without being repressed through marriage (Taylor 94). Astell’s proposal for constructing an all-female academy was rejected for being too reminiscent of nunneries at a time when England “condemned” anything with “just the hint of papist associations” (Perry 134). Astell, like Behn, thus found herself stuck with a theoretical idea for female empowerment that she could not bring to fruition in practice. This thesis will investigate Aphra Behn’s seemingly liberal view of female sexuality with her conservative political bent. Modern scholars have tended to see in Behn either a writer interested in female sexuality and societal double standards, or a Royalist with more concern for political values than for women’s rights. Through analysis of Behn’s conservative politics coupled with her interest in female sexuality, this thesis will investigate the degree to which each perspective enhances, and contradicts, the other

CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG YOUNG ADULT SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD CANCER:A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG YOUNG ADULT SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD CANCER: A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSISAmanda L. Thompson, Ph.D.University of Pittsburgh, 2007The growing body of research focusing on the long-term sequelae of diagnosis and treatment for childhood cancer suggests that while the majority of survivors are not at increased risk for psychopathology, many experience persistent problems in other domains that greatly affect quality of life (QoL). Social well-being, a construct that includes the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships and issues of affection and sexuality, has been somewhat neglected in the late-effects literature. As such, a multi-method, developmentally sensitive study was conducted 1) to assess whether childhood cancer survivors experience difficulties in their close relationships during young adulthood, 2) to characterize the nature of these difficulties, 3) to identify who may be at risk for long-term social sequelae, and 4) to document survivors' own perceptions of their interpersonal relationships. Sixty young adult (18-25years old) survivors of childhood cancer and 60 controls without a history of chronic illness completed an online assessment of their friendship and romantic relationships. In addition, a subsample of 18 female survivors participated in a follow-up qualitative interview. Quantitative analyses revealed that relative to controls, survivors were involved in fewer romantic relationships over the past five years and reported being significantly more distressed at the dissolution of those relationships. High trait anxiety, male gender, an older age of diagnosis, and higher treatment intensity emerged as significant risk factors for a host of relationship difficulties within the survivor sample, including lower relationship satisfaction, lower levels of reported intimacy, greater fear of intimacy, more conflict, and more distress at break-up. Finally, qualitative findings highlighted relationship issues not captured by the quantitative measures, including cautiousness with personal self-disclosure, self-consciousness as a result of treatment-related physical changes and medical sequelae, and concerns about fertility. In light of the inconsistencies between quantitative and qualitative findings, this study emphasizes the need for more sophisticated measures of survivors' social QoL. Limitations of the study (related to sampling and measurement) are discussed, and a number of future directions are suggested

The lived experience of non-offending mothers in cases of intrafamilial child sexual abuse: Towards a preliminary model of loss, trauma and recovery

The non-offending mother in cases of intrafamilial child sexual abuse has received limited empirical attention in comparative to the considerable body of literature examining victims and perpetrators of child sexual abuse. There is growing evidence that demonstrates that nonoffending mothers’ experience significant loss and trauma following the discovery of their children’s sexual victimisation by a family member, particularly where the perpetrators are their partners. An understanding of the non-offending mother’s experience is crucial to guiding statutory agencies and therapeutic interventions when working with these families. However, there is currently not a model or framework that conceptualises mothers’ post-discovery experience, and the factors that might impede or facilitate their recovery. The aim with the present study was to address the gap in the existing literature, by conducting an exploratory investigation of the lived experience of non-offending mothers in order to generate a preliminary model outlining their recovery journey in the aftermath of discovery, drawing from existing theories of loss and trauma. The present study comprises two stages; in the first stage, qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of eleven mothers. Data derived from the interviews were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis, from which a preliminary model was generated. The model proposed the non-offending mother’s recovery journey comprises three primary phases; the Acute Phase (Discovery and Destabilisation), the Transition Phase (Loss and Disempowerment), and the Transformative Phase (Taking Control and Accommodation). The preliminary model identified unique aspects of the maternal experience not sufficiently accounted for by many of the existing theoretical conceptualisations. The second stage of the study utilised a Delphi methodology to seek feedback on the proposed model from a panel of 18 key experts in the field of intrafamilial child sexual abuse. The input from the Delphi panel was utilised to further refine and validate the preliminary model. The panel confirmed the preliminary model provided a valid representation of the non-offending mother’s post-discovery experience with minor alterations. The findings of the present study are an important progression towards developing a more comprehensive and unified conceptualisation of the experiences of the non-offending mother in the aftermath of discovery. This in turn has important implications for the intervening professionals from both statutory and therapeutic orientations who work with this population

Adherence to Clean Intermittent Catheterization Treatment in Pediatric Patients: A Comprehensive Review of Literature

Clean Intermittent Catheterization (CIC) was first introduced by Lapides, et al, in 1972 and has revolutionized management of voiding dysfunction through decreasing urological complications. CIC is an invasive procedure where a clean catheter is introduced into the bladder in order to empty it. The procedure can be done by the patient or caregiver and is usually performed 4-5 times a day. The World Health Organization defines adherence as the extent to which a person’s behavior corresponds with agreed recommendations from a health care professional. Non-adherence to CIC causes many urological complications, including UTIs, epididymitis, and decreasing renal function. The purpose of this study is to discover the barriers that prevent adherence to CIC in pediatric patients

Performing Care: New Perspectives on Socially Engaged Performance

This edited collection brings together essays presenting an interdisciplinary dialogue between theatre and performance and the fields of care ethics, care studies, health and social care. The book advances our understanding of performance as a mode of care, challenging existing debates in this area by re-thinking the caring encounter as a performed, embodied experience and interrogating the boundaries between care practice and performance. Through an examination of a wide range of different care performances drawn from interdisciplinary and international settings, the book interrogates how performance might be understood as caring or uncaring, careless or careful, and correlatively how care can be conceptualised as artful, aesthetic, authentic or even ‘fake’ and ‘staged’. Drawing on interdisciplinary debates and discussion, the book considers how the field of performance and the aesthetic and ethico-political structures that determine its relationship with the social might be challenged by an examination of inter-human care. By placing socially-engaged performance in dialogue with theories and practices of care, the contributors consider how performance operates as a mode of caring for others and how debates between the theory and practice of care and performance making might foster a greater understanding of how the caring encounter is embodied and experienced