Transition to parenthood and quality of parenting among gay, lesbian and heterosexual couples who conceived through assisted reproduction

Little research has focused on the emotions felt during pregnancy and early parenthood as well as the initial quality of parenting displayed by first-time parents who conceived using assisted reproduction technologies (surrogacy, donor insemination, and in vitro fertilization). Research on primary and secondary caregivers in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual families is especially sparse. The current study examined 35 gay-father families, 58 lesbian-mother families and 41 heterosexual-parent families with their infants. Families were assessed at home when their infants were 4 months old (±14 days), and each parent participated in an audio-recorded standardized semi-structured interview in which we explored parental feelings during pregnancy, feelings about the parental role, perceived parental competence, the enjoyment of parenthood, expressed warmth and emotional over-involvement of parents. 13 Heterosexual parents reported less positive feelings in early pregnancy than lesbian parents, while gay parents reported less positive feelings at the end of pregnancy than lesbian mothers and more positive feelings about parenthood during the first post-partum weeks than heterosexual parents. There was no interaction between family type and caregiver role on reported feelings, or on perceived competence, enjoyment, warmth, and involvement. The present findings elucidate the transition to parenthood among first-time parents conceiving through assisted reproductive technologies, and especially contribute to our knowledge about gay fathers who became parents through surrogacy

Electronic Structure of the Complex Hydride NaAlH4

Density functional calculations of the electronic structure of the complex hydride NaAlH4 and the reference systems NaH and AlH3 are reported. We find a substantially ionic electronic structure for NaAlH4, which emphasizes the importance of solid state effects in this material. The relaxed hydrogen positions in NaAlH4 are in good agreement with recent experiment. The electronic structure of AlH3 is also ionic. Implications for the binding of complex hydrides are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Stigmatization associated with growing up in a lesbianparented family: What do adolescents experience and how do they deal with 140

The purpose of the current qualitative study was to investigate whether adolescents in American planned lesbian families experienced negative reactions from their social environment associated with their mothers' sexual orientation, and if so, to explore the nature of these experiences. In addition, the focus was on the coping strategies as described by the adolescents themselves. Results revealed that half of the 78 participating 17-years-olds had experienced homophobic stigmatization. Such experiences usually took place within the school context and peers were most frequently mentioned as the source. The adolescents used adaptive strategies (such as optimism) more frequently than maladaptive strategies (such as avoidance) to cope with these negative experiences. Our results suggest that intervention programs focused on family diversity should be developed for school children of all ages since the stigmatization experienced by the studied adolescents typically happened in that context

Stigmatization associated with growing up in a lesbianparented family: What do adolescents experience and how do they deal with 140

The purpose of the current qualitative study was to investigate whether adolescents in American planned lesbian families experienced negative reactions from their social environment associated with their mothers' sexual orientation, and if so, to explore the nature of these experiences. In addition, the focus was on the coping strategies as described by the adolescents themselves. Results revealed that half of the 78 participating 17-years-olds had experienced homophobic stigmatization. Such experiences usually took place within the school context and peers were most frequently mentioned as the source. The adolescents used adaptive strategies (such as optimism) more frequently than maladaptive strategies (such as avoidance) to cope with these negative experiences. Our results suggest that intervention programs focused on family diversity should be developed for school children of all ages since the stigmatization experienced by the studied adolescents typically happened in that context

Quantum dots and spin qubits in graphene

This is a review on graphene quantum dots and their use as a host for spin qubits. We discuss the advantages but also the challenges to use graphene quantum dots for spin qubits as compared to the more standard materials like GaAs. We start with an overview of this young and fascinating field and will then discuss gate-tunable quantum dots in detail. We calculate the bound states for three different quantum dot architectures where a bulk gap allows for confinement via electrostatic fields: (i) graphene nanoribbons with armchair boundary, (ii) a disc in single-layer graphene, and (iii) a disc in bilayer graphene. In order for graphene quantum dots to be useful in the context of spin qubits, one needs to find reliable ways to break the valley-degeneracy. This is achieved here, either by a specific termination of graphene in (i) or in (ii) and (iii) by a magnetic field, without the need of a specific boundary. We further discuss how to manipulate spin in these quantum dots and explain the mechanism of spin decoherence and relaxation caused by spin-orbit interaction in combination with electron-phonon coupling, and by hyperfine interaction with the nuclear spin system.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, topical review prepared for Nanotechnolog