I was determined to breastfeed, and I always found a solution: Successful Experiences of Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Chinese Mothers in Ireland

Background: The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding for at least 4 months was previously found to be very low among Chinese immigrants in Ireland, at 5.8% (Zhou et al., Front Public Health 6:351, 2018). This study investigates the successful experiences of Chinese mothers living in Ireland who exclusively breastfeed for between four and 6 months. Methods: Participants were recruited from the sample of the Ireland Chinese Mother Survey. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with fourteen participants in their homes or public places. Results: A content analysis revealed that various factors contributed to a successful experience of exclusive breastfeeding among the group of Chinese immigrant mothers, including strong self-determination; appropriate physical conditions; awareness of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding; a lack of time constraints; and family, professional and policy support. The barriers that the mothers faced included the difficulty of balancing breastfeeding and employment, infant health issues, language barriers, an inability to consume the traditional Chinese postpartum diet and a lack of public breastfeeding facilities. Measures taken to overcome these barriers included seeking family support, resting during the lactation period, and pumping breast milk to feed from a bottle when outside the home. Conclusions: This study highlights unique factors affecting exclusive breastfeeding among Chinese mothers in Ireland, which may be useful to health care professionals working with Chinese immigrant women internationally

Learning Communities for Graduate Students: Supporting Scholarly Teaching

Mid-career graduate students have unique needs related to developing their pedagogical skills and their knowledge of classroom-based research. Participants in this panel session will gain insights into the benefits of participating in a graduate student learning community and learn ways to incorporate aspects of such a program into their mentoring repertoire

How to Promote Exclusive Breastfeeding in Ireland: a Qualitative Study on Views of Chinese Immigrant Mothers

Background The exclusive breastfeeding rate in Ireland is very low with extremely slow annual growth.The population of immigrants in Ireland is increasing. Improving exclusive breastfeeding practice amongimmigrants may contribute to the overall improvement of exclusive breastfeeding rates in Ireland. Thisstudy was conducted to elicit recommendations on improving exclusive breastfeeding rate for six monthsamong Chinese immigrants in Ireland. Methods Fourteen semi-structured in-depth individual interviewswere conducted with Chinese immigrant mothers resident in Ireland, who breastfed exclusively for four to six months

Reporter Discrepancies Among Parents, Adolescents, and Peers: Adolescent Attachment and Informant Depressive Symptoms as Explanatory Factors

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Ehrlich, K.B., Cassidy, J. and Dykas, M.J. (2011), Reporter Discrepancies Among Parents, Adolescents, and Peers: Adolescent Attachment and Informant Depressive Symptoms as Explanatory Factors. Child Development, 82: 999-1012., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01530.x . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.The issue of informant discrepancies about child and adolescent functioning is an important concern for clinicians, developmental psychologists, and others who must consider ways of handling discrepant reports of information, but reasons for discrepancies in reports have been poorly understood. Adolescent attachment and informant depressive symptoms were examined as 2 explanations for absolute and directional discrepancies about adolescent symptoms, relationships, and social behavior in a sample of 189 eleventh-grade students (mean age = 16.5 years). Adolescent attachment predicted absolute discrepancies, with greater attachment coherence associated with fewer discrepancies in reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, parent–adolescent conflict, and adolescent externalizing behavior. Parents’ but not adolescents’ depressive symptoms sometimes predicted absolute discrepancies. Mothers’ depressive symptoms and adolescent attachment predicted the direction of discrepancies for mother–peer reports only.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01530.

Tipping Points in Adolescent Adjustment: Predicting Social Functioning from Adolescents’ Conflict with Parents and Friends

©American Psychological Association, 2012. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029868Despite widespread interest in examining the role of conflict for adolescent development, researchers only rarely have examined adolescents' experiences of conflict across relationships. The present study examined how adolescents' experiences of conflict with parents and friends were linked to their social functioning. Adolescents (n = 189) and their mothers and fathers participated in semistructured discussions about areas of parent-adolescent conflict in the laboratory. In addition, adolescents reported about conflict in their best friendships, and peers reported about adolescents' social acceptance and behavior in social settings. Parent–adolescent conflict was associated with peer-reported aggression and delinquency, and friendship conflict was associated with delinquency and prosocial behavior. In addition, significant Parent–Adolescent Conflict × Friend–Adolescent Conflict interactions revealed that parent–adolescent conflict was associated with poor social functioning only when conflict with best friends was also high. The findings suggest that consideration of conflict across relationships may yield insight into the specific contexts in which conflict is associated with negative outcomes for adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)https://doi.org/10.1037/a002986

Sports Bra Preferences by Age and Impact of Breast Size on Physical Activity among American Females

For many females, sports bras are an essential piece of equipment for participation in sports and physical activity. Breast pain or discomfort from lack of support may be a contributing factor to the noted gender disparity in physical activity of females compared to males. Our objective was to evaluate sports bra usage and characterize sports bra preferences of an active female cohort. This multicenter cross-sectional survey study was conducted at five geographically distinct academic centers. Our measure was administered during outpatient sports medicine clinic visits to females aged 11–64 years old. Chi-square tests were used to compare characteristics across subgroups. Our analysis consisted of 438 respondents, with a mean age of 22 ± 12.2 years. More than a quarter (27.4%) reported lack of breast support prevented them from being active or exercising. Age (p = 0.03), breast size (p < 0.0001), and household income (p = 0.01) were significantly associated with greater frequency of physical activity being limited by lack of breast support. Lack of breast support may be an important barrier for young females of specific populations to meeting physical activity recommendations. Further research is needed to improve the understanding of this important piece of sporting equipment for women

Parental Knowledge of Adolescent Activities: Links With Parental Attachment Style and Adolescent Substance Use

©American Psychological Association, 2015. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000070Parents’ knowledge of their adolescents’ whereabouts and activities is a robust predictor of adolescent risk behavior, including the use of drugs and alcohol. Surprisingly few studies have attempted to identify parental characteristics that are associated with the degree of parental knowledge. The present study is the first to examine how parental attachment style relates to mother, father, and adolescent reports of parental knowledge. Further, we used structural equation modeling to test the associations among parents’ attachment styles, reports of parental knowledge, and adolescents’ alcohol and marijuana use. Participants included 203 adolescents (M age = 14.02, SD = .91) living in 2-parent households and their parent(s). As predicted, mothers’ and fathers’ insecure attachment styles were negatively associated with self-reported and adolescent-reported parental knowledge, and all 3 reports of parental knowledge were negatively related to adolescent substance use. Mothers’ and fathers’ attachment styles were unrelated to adolescent substance use. However, evidence emerged for indirect effects of parental attachment style on adolescent substance use through reports of parental knowledge. Implications for prevention efforts and the importance of multiple reporters within the family are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)https://doi.org/10.1037/a002986

Do Adolescents and Parents Reconstruct Memories About Their Conflict as a Function of Adolescent Attachment?

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Dykas, M.J., Woodhouse, S.S., Ehrlich, K.B. and Cassidy, J. (2010), Do Adolescents and Parents Reconstruct Memories About Their Conflict as a Function of Adolescent Attachment?. Child Development, 81: 1445-1459., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01484.x . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.This study examined whether 17-year-old adolescents (n = 189) and their parents reconstructed their memory for an adolescent–parent laboratory conflict over a 6-week period as a function of adolescent attachment organization. It also compared participants’ perceptions of conflict over time to observational ratings of the conflict to further characterize the nature of the attachment-related memory biases that emerged. Secure adolescents reconstructed interactions with each parent more favorably over time, whereas insecure adolescents showed less favorable reconstructive memory. Likewise, mothers of secure girls reconstructed conflicts more favorably over time, whereas mothers of insecure boys showed less favorable reconstructive memory. Participant ratings were associated with observational ratings in theoretically consistent ways. Contrary to expectations, fathers showed no attachment-related memory biases.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01484.