The influence of mothers' and fathers' parenting stress and depressive symptoms on own and partner's parent-child communication

This study examines how parenting stress and depressive symptoms experienced by mothers and fathers influence their own (actor effects) and the partner's (partner effects) parent–child communication. Based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, data from 196 families were analyzed, with both parents rating their parenting stress and depressive feelings, and parents as well as children rating the open parent–child communication. Actor effects were found between parenting stress and open parent–child communication, whereas partner effects were prominent between depressive symptoms and open parent–child communication. The results provide no evidence for gender differences in the strength of the pathways to open parent–child communication. Our findings demonstrate the need to include both parents in studies on parent–child communication to enhance our understanding of the mutual influence among family members

Global and regional estimates of violence against women

The report presents a global systematic review of scientific data on the prevalence of two forms of violence against women: violence by an intimate partner (intimate partner violence) and sexual violence by someone other than a partner (non-partner sexual violence). It shows global and regional estimates of the prevalence of these two forms of violence, using data from around the world. The report details the effects of partner and non-partner sexual violence on several aspects of women’s health. It shows that women who have experienced intimate partner violence have higher rates of depression, HIV, injury and death, and are more likely to have low birth weight babies, than those who haven’t. Though research on the health effects of non-partner sexual violence is more limited, the evidence clearly shows that sexual violence has both long- and short-term debilitating effects on women’s mental health and well-being. Report developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the South African Medical Research Council (MRC)

The effects of childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder on women and their relationships: a qualitative study

There is converging evidence that 1%-2% of women develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of childbirth. The current study aimed to explore the long-term effects of childbirth-related PTSD on women, their relationship with their partner and their relationship with their child. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six women who reported clinically significant PTSD after birth, ranging from 7 months to 18 years beforehand. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Childbirth-related PTSD was found to have wide-ranging effects on women and their relationships. Women reported changes in physical well-being, mood and behaviour, social interaction, and fear of childbirth. Women reported negative effects on their relationship with their partner, including sexual dysfunction, disagreements and blame for events of birth. The mother-baby bond was also seriously affected. Nearly all women reported initial feelings of rejection towards the baby but this changed over time. Long-term, women seemed to have either avoidant or anxious attachments with their child. It is concluded that childbirth-related PTSD can have severe and lasting effects on women and their relationships with their partner and children. Further research is needed to compare this to normal difficulties experienced by women after having children

Probing light top partners with CP violation

We investigate CP-violating effects induced by light top partners in composite Higgs theories. We find that sizable contributions to the dipole moments of the light SM quarks and leptons are generically generated at the two-loop level through Barr-Zee-type diagrams. The present constraints on the electron and neutron electric dipole moments translate into bounds on top partner masses of order few TeV and are competitive with the reach of LHC direct searches. Interestingly, we find that CP-violation effects are sensitive to the same operators that control top partner single production. Near-future improvements in the determination of the electron dipole moment will extend the reach on top partner masses beyond the 5 - 10 TeV range.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures; v2: typos corrected, matches published versio

The effects of the spontaneous presence of a spouse/partner and others on cardiovascular reactions to an acute psychological challenge

The presence of supportive others has been associated with attenuated cardiovascular reactivity in the laboratory. The effects of the presence of a spouse and others in a more naturalistic setting have received little attention. Blood pressure and heart rate reactions to mental stress were recorded at home in 1028 married/partnered individuals. For 112 participants, their spouse/partner was present; for 78, at least one other person was present. Women tested with a spouse/partner present showed lower magnitude systolic blood pressure and heart rate reactivity than those tested without. Individuals tested with at least one nonspousal other present also displayed attenuated reactivity. This extends the results of laboratory studies and indicates that the spontaneous presence of others is associated with a reduction in cardiovascular reactivity in an everyday environment; spouse/partner presence would appear to be especially effective for women.\ud \u

A Mixed-Effects Location Scale Model for Dyadic Interactions.

We present a mixed-effects location scale model (MELSM) for examining the daily dynamics of affect in dyads. The MELSM includes person and time-varying variables to predict the location, or individual means, and the scale, or within-person variances. It also incorporates a submodel to account for between-person variances. The dyadic specification can accommodate individual and partner effects in both the location and the scale components, and allows random effects for all location and scale parameters. All covariances among the random effects, within and across the location and the scale are also estimated. These covariances offer new insights into the interplay of individual mean structures, intra-individual variability, and the influence of partner effects on such factors. To illustrate the model, we use data from 274 couples who provided daily ratings on their positive and negative emotions toward their relationship - up to 90 consecutive days. The model is fit using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods, and includes subsets of predictors in order to demonstrate the flexibility of this approach. We conclude with a discussion on the usefulness and the limitations of the MELSM for dyadic research

Revisiting Theories with Enhanced Higgs Couplings to Weak Gauge Bosons

Based on recent LHC Higgs analyses and in anticipation of future results we revisit theories where Higgs bosons can couple to weak gauge bosons with enhanced strength relative to the Standard Model value. Specifically, we look at the Georgi-Machacek model and its generalizations where higher "spin" representations of SU(2)_L break electroweak symmetry while maintaining custodial SU(2). In these theories, there is not only a Higgs-like boson but partner Higgs scalars transforming under representations of custodial SU(2), leading to a rich phenomenology. These theories serve as a consistent theoretical and experimental framework to explain enhanced couplings to gauge bosons, including fermiophobic Higgses. We focus on the phenomenology of a neutral scalar partner to the Higgs, which is determined once the Higgs couplings are specified. Depending on the parameter space, this partner could have i) enhanced fermion and gauge boson couplings and should be searched for at high mass (> 600 GeV), ii) have suppressed couplings and could be searched for at lower masses, where the Standard Model Higgs has already been ruled out, and iii) have fermiophilic couplings, where it can be searched for in heavy Higgs and top resonance searches. In the first two regions, the partner also has substantial decay rates into a pair of Higgs bosons. We touch briefly on the more model-dependent effects of the nontrivial SU(2)_C multiplets, which have exotic signals, such as a doubly-charged Higgs. We also discuss how the loop induced effects of these scalars tend to reduce the Higgs decay rate to photons, adding an additional uncertainty when extracting the couplings for the Higgs boson.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, revtex4; v2, references adde

Helping motivation and well-being of chronic pain couples: a daily diary study

Receiving support from a romantic partner may yield benefits for individuals with chronic pain (ICPs), but may also carry unintended side effects. The conditions under which partner support provision yields (mal) adaptive effects deserve greater attention. Grounded in Self-determination theory, partners may provide help for autonomous or volitional (eg, enjoyment, full commitment) or rather controlled or pressured (eg, avoiding guilt and criticism) motives. This study examined associations between day-to-day fluctuations in partners' type of helping motivation and several outcomes, among partners and ICPs. Seventy couples, with 1 partner having chronic pain (75.7% female), completed a diary for 14 consecutive days. Daily helping motivation was assessed together with daily affect, relational conflict, and relationship-based need satisfaction. Partners (M-age = 55.14) additionally reported on daily helping exhaustion, whereas ICPs (M-age = 54.71) reported on daily pain intensity, disability, satisfaction with received help, and amount of received help. Providing autonomous help related to improvements in partners' affective (eg, positive affect), relational (eg, conflict), and help-specific (eg, exhaustion) functioning, which were accounted for by improvements in daily relationship-based psychological need satisfaction. Similarly, daily autonomously motivated help yielded a direct (ie, relational conflict; perceived amount of help) or indirect (ie, positive and negative affects; relational conflict; satisfaction with help, disability) contribution in explaining ICP outcomes-through improvements in ICPs' relationship-based psychological need satisfaction. Findings highlight the importance of a motivational and dynamic perspective on help provision within chronic pain couples. Considering reasons why a partner provides help is important to understand when partners and ICPs may benefit from daily support

What does the eclectic trade model say about the Samuelson conundrum?

Can growth of a trading partner harm a country? This paper seeks to answer this question through the use of an eclectic trade model which is similar in flavour to Markusen (1986). This paper makes two contributions. First, it develops a simple and tractable model of international trade based on a combination of imperfectcompetition, comparative advantage, and identical but non-homothetic preferences in a three country framework. Second, it uses this framework to consider the possibility of losses from partner-country growth in a free-trading environment. We find that the presence of nonhomothetic preferences in particular, leads to a home bias in consumption which dampens any negative welfare effects when a country's trading partners grow

Two jets and missing ETE_T signature to determine the spins of the new particles

We consider the spin determination of new colored particles in the missing energy plus jets channel at the early stage of LHC. We use a three site moose model to describe the low energy Lagrangian of all same spin partner (LHT or UED like) models and check the gauge invariance of the amplitude. For the benchmark production and decay channel $pp \rightarrow U^{(R)} U^{(R)} \rightarrow u u B_H B_H$, in contrast to those in supersymmetric models, there are spin correlations which affect the polar and azimuthal angle distributions of the quarks from the heavy partner $U^{(R)}$ decay. We show such effects would be visible in the $E_{\rm T miss} / M_{\rm eff}$ distribution and the reconstructed azimuthal angle correlation using MAOS reconstruction.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure