Hybridization alters maternal and paternal genome contributions to early plant embryogenesis.

After fertilization, zygotic genome activation results in a transcriptionally competent embryo. Hybrid transcriptome experiments in Arabidopsis have concluded that the maternal and paternal genomes make equal contributions to zygotes and embryos, yet embryo defective (emb) mutants in the Columbia (Col) ecotype display early maternal effects. Here, we show that hybridization of Col with Landsberg erecta (Ler) or Cape Verde Islands (Cvi) ecotypes decreases the maternal effects of emb mutants. Reanalysis of Col/Ler and Col/Cvi transcriptomes confirmed equal parental contributions in Col/Cvi early embryos. By contrast, thousands of genes in Col/Ler zygotes and one-cell embryos were biallelic in one cross and monoallelic in the reciprocal cross, with analysis of intron reads pointing to active transcription as responsible for this parent-of-origin bias. Our analysis shows that, contrary to previous conclusions, the maternal and paternal genomes in Col/Ler zygotes are activated in an asymmetric manner. The decrease in maternal effects in hybrid embryos compared with those in isogenic Col along with differences in genome activation between Col/Cvi and Col/Ler suggest that neither of these hybrids accurately reflects the general trends of parent-of-origin regulation in Arabidopsis embryogenesis.

Parenting links to parent-child interbrain synchrony: a real-time fNIRS hyperscanning study.

Parent-child interaction is crucial for children's cognitive and affective development. While bio-synchrony models propose that parenting influences interbrain synchrony during interpersonal interaction, the brain-to-brain mechanisms underlying real-time parent-child interactions remain largely understudied. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we investigated interbrain synchrony in 88 parent-child dyads (Mage children = 8.07, 42.0% girls) during a collaborative task (the Etch-a-Sketch, a joint drawing task). Our findings revealed increased interbrain synchrony in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal areas during interactive, collaborative sessions compared to non-interactive, resting sessions. Linear regression analysis demonstrated that interbrain synchrony in the left temporoparietal junction was associated with enhanced dyadic collaboration, shared positive affect, parental autonomy support, and parental emotional warmth. These associations remained significant after controlling for demographic variables including child age, child gender, and parent gender. Additionally, differences between fathers and mothers were observed. These results highlight the significant association between brain-to-brain synchrony in parent-child dyads, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and supportive parenting behaviors. Interbrain synchrony may serve as a neurobiological marker of real-time parent-child interaction, potentially underscoring the pivotal role of supportive parenting in shaping these interbrain synchrony mechanisms.

Family Cohesion Moderates the Relation between Parent-Child Neural Connectivity Pattern Similarity and Youth's Emotional Adjustment.

Despite a recent surge in research examining parent-child neural similarity using fMRI, there remains a need for further investigation into how such similarity may play a role in children's emotional adjustment. Moreover, no prior studies explored the potential contextual factors that may moderate the link between parent-child neural similarity and children's developmental outcomes. In this study, 32 parent-youth dyads (parents: M age = 43.53 years, 72% female; children: M age = 11.69 years, 41% female) watched an emotion-evoking animated film while being scanned using fMRI. We first quantified how similarly emotion network interacts with other brain regions in responding to the emotion-evoking film between parents and their children. We then examined how such parent-child neural similarity is associated with children's emotional adjustment, with attention to the moderating role of family cohesion. Results revealed that higher parent-child similarity in functional connectivity pattern during movie viewing was associated with better emotional adjustment, including less negative affect, lower anxiety, and greater ego resilience in youth. Moreover, such associations were significant only among families with higher cohesion, but not among families with lower cohesion. The findings advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying how children thrive by being in sync and attuned with their parents, and provide novel empirical evidence that the effects of parent-child concordance at the neural level on children's development are contextually dependent.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT What neural processes underlie the attunement between children and their parents that helps children thrive? Using a naturalistic movie-watching fMRI paradigm, we find that greater parent-child similarity in how emotion network interacts with other brain regions during movie viewing is associated with youth's better emotional adjustment including less negative affect, lower anxiety, and greater ego resilience. Interestingly, these associations are only significant among families with higher cohesion, but not among those with lower cohesion. Our findings provide novel evidence that parent-child shared neural processes to emotional situations can confer benefits to children, and underscore the importance of considering specific family contexts in which parent-child neural similarity may be beneficial or detrimental to children's development, highlighting a crucial direction for future research.

Mothers and fathers show different neural synchrony with their children during shared experiences.

Parent-child shared experiences has an important influence on social development in children although contributions of mothers and fathers may differ. Neural synchronicity occurs between mothers and fathers and their children during social interactions but it is unclear whether they differ in this respect. We used data from simultaneous fNIRS hyperscanning in mothers (n = 33) and fathers (n = 29) and their children (3-4 years) to determine different patterns and strengths of neural synchronization in the frontal cortex during co-viewing of videos or free-play. Mothers showed greater synchrony with child than fathers during passive viewing of videos and the synchronization was positively associated with video complexity and negatively associated with parental stress. During play interactions, mothers showed more controlling behaviors over their child and greater evidence for joint gaze and joint imitation play with child whereas fathers spent more time gazing at other things. In addition, different aspects of child communication promoted neural synchrony between mothers and fathers and child during active play interactions. Overall, our findings indicate greater neural and behavioral synchrony between mothers than fathers and young children during passive or active shared experiences, although for both it was weakened by parental distress and child difficulty.

Household material hardship and distress among parents of children with advanced cancer: A report from the PediQUEST Response trial.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence and characteristics of household material hardship (HMH) in families of children with advanced cancer and its association with parent distress are unknown and herein described. METHODS: Parents of children aged ≥2 years with advanced cancer at five cancer centers completed baseline surveys as part of the PediQUEST Response trial. HMH (housing, energy, and food) was operationalized as binary (≥1 HMH domains), ordinal (zero, one, or two or more HMH domains), and housing based (none, nonhousing [food and/or energy], only housing, or housing + other). Associations between HMH and parent distress measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State and the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale were estimated via linear models adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: Among 150 parents, 41% reported ≥1 HMH (housing, 28% [only housing, 8%; housing + other, 20%]; energy, 19%; food, 27%). HMH was more prevalent among Hispanic, other non-White race, Spanish-speaking, and single parents and those with lower education (associate degree or less) or who were uninsured/Medicaid-only insured. Parents endorsing HMH reported higher anxiety (mean difference [MD], 9.2 [95% CI, 3.7-14.7]) and depression (MD, 4.1 [95% CI, 1.7-6.5]) scores compared to those without HMH. Distress increased with the number of hardships, particularly housing insecurity. Specifically, parents experiencing housing hardship, alone or combined, reported higher distress (housing only: anxiety: MD, 10.2 [95% CI, 1.8-18.5]; depression: MD, 4.9 [95% CI, 1.3-8.6]; housing + other HMH: anxiety: MD, 12.0 [95% CI, 5.2-18.9]; depression: MD, 4.8 [95% CI, 1.8-7.8]). CONCLUSIONS: HMH is highly prevalent in pediatric advanced cancer, especially among historically marginalized families. Future research should investigate whether interventions targeting HMH, particularly housing stabilization efforts, can mitigate parent distress. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: In our cohort of parents of children with advanced cancer, household material hardship (HMH) was highly prevalent and significantly associated with higher parent distress. Housing hardship was the primary driver of this association. Families of children with advanced cancer may benefit from systematic HMH screening as well as targeted HMH interventions, especially stabilizing housing.

Neural and affective responses to prolonged eye contact with parents in depressed and nondepressed adolescents.

Eye contact improves mood, facilitates connectedness, and is assumed to strengthen the parent-child bond. Adolescent depression is linked to difficulties in social interactions, the parent-child bond included. Our goal was to elucidate adolescents' affective and neural responses to prolonged eye contact with one's parent in nondepressed adolescents (HC) and how these responses are affected in depressed adolescents. While in the scanner, 59 nondepressed and 19 depressed adolescents were asked to make eye contact with their parent, an unfamiliar peer, an unfamiliar adult, and themselves by using videos of prolonged direct and averted gaze, as an approximation of eye contact. After each trial, adolescents reported on their mood and feelings of connectedness, and eye movements and BOLD-responses were assessed. In HCs, eye contact boosted mood and feelings of connectedness and increased activity in inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), temporal pole, and superior frontal gyrus. Unlike HCs, eye contact did not boost the mood of depressed adolescents. While HCs reported increased mood and feelings of connectedness to the sight of their parent versus others, depressed adolescents did not. Depressed adolescents exhibited blunted overall IFG activity. These findings show that adolescents are particularly sensitive to eye contact and respond strongly to the sight of their parents. This sensitivity seems to be blunted in depressed adolescents. For clinical purposes, it is important to gain a better understanding of how the responsivity to eye contact in general and with their parents in particular, can be restored in adolescents with depression.

Extended incubation recesses in sanderlings are impacted by temperature and body condition.

Complex incubation strategies have evolved to solve the trade-off between parent survival and care for their eggs with often brief departures (recesses) that maximize egg survival, and infrequent extended recesses maximizing adult condition. Here we examined incubation behaviour of sanderlings (Calidris alba), a species that exhibits both biparental and uniparental incubation behaviour. During 11 breeding seasons in Greenland, we have quantified incubation variability with thermologgers placed in nests. We estimated the impact of environmental conditions and individual characteristics on the occurrence and the duration of recesses. We found that extended recesses are a unique feature of uniparentals, and their frequency and duration increased in colder temperatures. The relationship was mediated by body condition, with individuals in poor condition performing longer extended recesses in colder temperatures. This suggests that extended recesses may represent a shift towards self-maintenance at the expense of the egg care, allowing birds to continue incubating under unfavourable conditions. Our study illustrates how extended recesses may be a key breeding strategy to overcome high energetic costs associated with incubation. Quantifying such behavioural flexibility paves the way for tracking future behavioural responses of individuals in the face of changing environments.

Adapting E-cigarette prevention programming to reach the latinx community.

PURPOSE: E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among youth in the United States. Yet evidence-based prevention programming is limited due to the rapid onset of this threat. Community-based efforts to address vaping largely target youth in school settings. Although parents can play an important role in youth tobacco control efforts, messages about the dangers of vaping, use among adolescents, and strategies for intervening have not reached many Spanish-speaking parents in low-income Latinx communities. Our community-academic team developed e-cigarette prevention programming for use by promotor/as de salud to address this unmet need. METHODS: During the 1-year project, the team worked closely with a Project Advisory Committee to: review existing evidence-informed materials; conduct focus groups with parents, youth and promotor/as to guide program development; develop a curriculum to prepare promotor/as to educate low-literacy, Spanish-speaking parents about vaping; craft Spanish language resources for promotor/as to use in community education sessions; train 61 promotor/as to deliver the program; and support program delivery to 657 community members. RESULTS: Focus groups with promotor/as and community members, key-informant interviews, and brief surveys informed program development and assessment. Community member feedback was essential to development of appropriate materials. Promotor/as demonstrated significant pre- to post- training increases in e-cigarette knowledge and confidence in delivering vaping prevention education. Community members demonstrated a mastery of basic e-cigarette concepts and expressed intention to discuss vaping with their children. CONCLUSIONS: Promotor/a-led programming for parents represents a promising approach to vaping prevention and control in the Latinx community.

The Parent PrU: A measure to assess personal utility of pediatric genomic results.

PURPOSE: We aimed to adapt and validate an existing patient-reported outcome measure, the personal-utility (PrU) scale, for use in the pediatric genomic context. METHODS: We adapted the adult version of the PrU and obtained feedback from 6 parents whose child had undergone sequencing. The resulting measure, the Parent PrU, was administered to parents of children in 4 pediatric cohorts of the Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research consortium after they received their children's genomic results. We investigated the measure's structural validity and internal consistency. RESULTS: We conducted a principal-axis factor analysis with oblimin rotation on data from 755 participants to determine structural validity. These analyses yielded a 3-factor solution, accounting for 76% of the variance in the 16 items. We used Cronbach's α to assess the internal consistency of each factor: (1) child benefits (α = .95), (2) affective parent benefits (α = .90), and (3) parent control (α = .94). CONCLUSION: Our evidence suggests that the Parent PrU scale has potential as a measure for assessing parent-reported personal utility of their children's genomic results. Additional research is needed to further validate the Parent PrU scale, including by comparing its findings with utility assessments reported by clinicians and children themselves.

Economic evaluation of a trial exploring the effects of a web-based support tool for parents of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the cost-effectiveness of a web-based support tool for parents of children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. METHODS: A multi-centred randomised controlled trial was conducted in paediatric rheumatology centres in England. The WebParC intervention consisted of online information about JIA and its treatment and a toolkit using cognitive-behavioural therapy principles to support parents manage their child's JIA. An economic evaluation was performed alongside the trial involving 220 parents. The primary outcome was the self-report Pediatric Inventory for Parents measure of illness-related parenting stress, with two dimensions; difficulty and frequency. These measures along with costs were assessed post intervention at 4 months and 12 months. Costs were calculated for healthcare usage using a UK NHS economic perspective. Data was collected and analysed on the impact of caring costs on families. Uncertainty around cost effectiveness was explored using bootstrapping and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. RESULTS: The intervention arm showed improved average Pediatric Inventory for Parents scores for the dimensions of frequency and difficulty, of 1.5 and 3.6 respectively at 4 months and. 0.35 and 0.39 at 12 months, representing improved PIP scores for the intervention arm. At both 4 and 12 month follow up the average total cost per case was higher in the control group when compared with the intervention arm with mean differences of £360 (95% CI £29.6 to £691) at 4 months and £203 (95% CI £16 to £390) at 12 months. The probability of the intervention being cost effective ranged between 49% and 54%. CONCLUSION: The WebParC intervention led to reductions in primary and secondary healthcare resource use and costs at 4 and 12 months. The intervention demonstrated particular savings for rheumatology services at both follow ups. Future economies of scale could be realised by health providers with increased opportunities for cost effectiveness over time. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN, ISRCTN13159730.

Development and initial validation of parent and child versions of the Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score.

OBJECTIVE: To develop parent- and child-centered versions of the Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score (JADAS) and to provide preliminary evidence of their validity. METHODS: Validation analyses were conducted on two large multinational datasets of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and included assessment of construct validity, internal consistency and structure, discriminative validity, responsiveness to change, and predictive validity. RESULTS: The parJADAS and patJADAS include four parent/patient-reported outcomes, each measured on a 0-10 scale: assessment of overall disease activity; rating of pain intensity; assessment of activity of joint disease; duration of morning stiffness. Both scores are calculated as the simple linear sum of the scores of their 4 components, which yields for both of them a global score of 0-40. The parJADAS and patJADAS demonstrated good construct validity, yielding high correlations with other JIA composite disease activity measures and moderate correlations with physician global rating and joint counts. Internal consistency was satisfactory, with Cronbach' s alpha > 0.80, and exploratory factor analysis showed that both indices are monodimensional. Both instruments discriminated well between different disease states, with discriminative ability being not affected by the presence of damage, proved able to predict important disease outcomes, and showed fair responsiveness to clinically important change, with standardized response mean of 0.71. CONCLUSION: Both parJADAS and patJADAS were found to possess good measurement properties and to serve as surrogate of physicians' evaluations. Regular home completion of the two instruments through digital technologies offers a suitable and pragmatic approach to deliver remote symptom monitoring and telehealth.

Psychosocial outcomes of children born via embryo donation.

STUDY QUESTION: What are parents' perceptions of their relationships with and the psychosocial adjustments of their children who are born via embryo donation? SUMMARY ANSWER: Families created through embryo donation have well-adjusted parent-child relationships and reassuring child psychosocial outcomes. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Embryo donation is an effective and growing form of third-party reproduction, but there is limited research in this field. Prior studies suggest that families created through gamete donation function well regarding parent-child relationship quality and child behavioral and socioemotional adjustment. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: This is a cross-sectional survey study with 187 total participants. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Parents of children born via embryo donation were recruited nationally by contacting all embryo donation programs registered with the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinic Outcome Reporting System (SART CORS) as well as medically directed embryo donation or 'embryo adoption' centers. Participants completed three online Qualtrics questionnaires. The first was a survey including 33 questions on demographics, the procurement process, and self-reported obstetric outcomes. Participants also completed two standardized measures assessing children's behavior and parents' adjustment to parenthood: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ). Scoring of the SDQ and PARQ was totaled and compared to standardized values (SDQ) or previously published results on other forms of gamete donation (PARQ), such as oocyte donation and sperm donation. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: On the SDQ (n = 46), the average total difficulties scores by age were: 8.2 ± 0.98 for ages 2-4, 7.6 ± 0.93 for ages 5-10, and 3.5 ± 0.77 for ages 11-17; this is compared to the normal reported range of 0-13, which indicates that clinically significant psychosocial problems are unlikely. Across all ages and individual categories (emotional symptoms, conduct problem, hyperactivity, peer problem, prosocial), scores on the SDQ were within the normal ranges. The average PARQ score (n = 70) for all respondents was 27.5 ± 1.18 (range: 24-96), suggesting perceived parental acceptance. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Because this study was cross-sectional, it could not capture familial relationships over time. This survey-based study design allows for potential selection bias (parents of well-adjusted children may be more likely to participate). Additionally, the overall sample size is relatively small; however, it remains one of the largest published to date. Another significant limitation to this study is the lack of generalizability: most participants were recruited from private, faith-based, embryo donation programs who are demographically similar. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Though embryo donation is an established form of third-party reproduction, it is significantly less robustly studied compared to other forms of gamete donation (oocyte or sperm donation). This study provides a larger data set with a more expanded age range of children compared to the limited number of previously published studies. Furthermore, these findings indicate a high parental disclosure rate with respect to the use of embryo donation which contrasts previous findings. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S): No external funding source was utilized for the completion of this study. No conflicts are disclosed. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: N/A.

Study of Allergy and Sensitization Relationship in Children and Parents in Southern China.

INTRODUCTION: The incidence of allergic diseases has increased globally, with genetics playing an essential role in these conditions' development. However, there is still a gap in understanding of how parental allergy status affects children's allergies. METHODS: An electronic questionnaire was used to assess allergy-related symptoms in kindergarten children and their parents, with a clinical diagnosis and concurrent serum allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE), total IgE, and blood cell counts obtained. RESULTS: 88 family groups were enrolled, with allergy prevalence of 85.2% in children, 50% in fathers, and 42% in mothers. Allergic rhinoconjunctivitis was the most common allergic disease. When the mother had an allergy, the children's allergy diagnosis rate was 91.3%; 86.67% when the father had an allergy; and 85.71% when both parents had allergies. The child sensitization rate was 78.26% when the father had sensitization, 59.09% just as the mother had sensitization, and 84.21% when both parents had sensitization. Paternal allergies affected children's quality of life due to allergic rhinitis but not their rhinitis symptoms. Maternal allergies or sensitization did not significantly affect children's symptoms or quality-of-life scores. CONCLUSION: The study found a positive correlation between childhood and parental allergies, and further studies are needed to confirm the findings.

Sticky criticism? Affective and neural responses to parental criticism and praise in adolescents with depression.

BACKGROUND: Parent-adolescent interactions, particularly parental criticism and praise, have previously been identified as factors relevant to self-concept development and, when negative, to adolescent depression. Yet, whether adolescents with depression show aberrant emotional and neural reactivity to parental criticism and praise is understudied. METHODS: Adolescents with depression (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 59) received feedback supposedly provided by their mother or father in the form of negative ('untrustworthy'), neutral ('chaotic'), and positive ('respectful') personality evaluations while in an MRI-scanner. After each feedback word, adolescents reported their mood. Beforehand, adolescents had rated whether these personality evaluations matched their self-views. RESULTS: In both groups, mood decreased after criticism and increased after praise. Adolescents with depression reported blunted mood responses after praise, whereas there were no mood differences after criticism. Neuroimaging analyses revealed that adolescents with depression (v. healthy controls) exhibited increased activity in response to criticism in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, temporal pole, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus. Praise consistent with adolescents' self-views improved mood independent of depression status, while criticism matching self-views resulted in smaller mood increases in adolescents with depression (v. healthy controls). Exploratory analyses indicated that adolescents with depression recalled criticism (v. praise) more. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with depression might be especially attentive to parental criticism, as indexed by increased sgACC and hippocampus activity, and memorize this criticism more. Together with lower positive impact of praise, these findings suggest that cognitive biases in adolescent depression may affect how parental feedback is processed, and may be fed into their self-views.

Clinical illness course and family-related outcomes among parents with a first episode of schizophrenia spectrum disorder: a 20-year follow-up of the OPUS trial.

BACKGROUND: Studies investigating parenthood and how it affects long-term outcomes are lacking among individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. This study aimed to examine the life of participants 20 years after their first diagnosis with a special focus on parenthood, clinical illness course, and family-related outcomes. METHODS: Among 578 individuals diagnosed with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorder between 1998 and 2000, a sample of 174 participants was reassessed at the 20-year follow-up. We compared symptom severity, remission, clinical recovery, and global functioning between 75 parents and 99 non-parents. Also, family functioning scored on the family assessment device, and the children's mental health was reported. We collected longitudinal data on psychiatric admission, supported housing, and work status via the Danish registers. RESULTS: Participants with offspring had significantly lower psychotic (mean (s.d.) of 0.89 (1.46) v. 1.37 (1.44), p = 0.031) negative (mean [s.d.] of 1.13 [1.16] v. 1.91 [1.07], p < 0.001) and disorganized symptom scores (mean [s.d.] of 0.46 [0.80] v. 0.85 [0.95], p = 0.005) and more were in remission (59.5% v. 22.4%, p < 0.001) and in clinical recovery (29.7% v. 11.1%, p = 0.002) compared to non-parents. When investigating global functioning over 20 years, individuals becoming parents after their first diagnosis scored higher than individuals becoming parents before their first diagnosis and non-parents. Regarding family-related outcomes, 28.6% reported unhealthy family functioning, and 10% of the children experienced daily life difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, parents have more favorable long-term outcomes than non-parents. Still, parents experience possible challenges regarding family functioning, and a minority of their children face difficulties in daily life.

Breeding phenology drives variation in reproductive output, reproductive costs and offspring fitness in a viviparous ectotherm.

Phenological advances are a widespread response to global warming and can contribute to determine the climate vulnerability of organisms, particularly in ectothermic species which are highly dependent on ambient temperatures to complete their life cycle. Yet, the relative contribution of breeding dates and temperature conditions during gestation on fitness of females and their offspring is poorly documented in reptiles. Here, we exposed females of the common lizard Zootoca vivipara to contrasting thermal scenarios (cold versus hot treatment) during gestation and quantified effects of parturition dates and thermal treatment on life-history traits of females and their offspring for one year. Overall, our results suggest that parturition date has a greater impact than thermal conditions during gestation on life history strategies. In particular, we found positive effects of an earlier parturition date on juvenile survival, growth and recruitment suggesting that environmental dependent selection and/or differences in parental quality between early and late breeders underlie seasonal changes in offspring fitness. Yet, an earlier parturition date compromised the energetic condition of gravid females, which suggests the existence of a mother-offspring conflict regarding the optimisation of parturition dates. While numerous studies focused on the direct effects of alterations in incubation temperatures on reptile life-history traits, our results highlight the importance of considering the role of breeding phenology in assessing the short- and long-term effects of thermal developmental plasticity.

Children's empathy moderates the association between perceived interparental conflict and child health.

Interparental conflict is known to negatively impact child well-being, including behavioral and physiological well-being. Children's empathy - that is, vicariously experiencing others' emotions - may increase children's sensitivity to and the biological repercussions of interparental conflict. Although empathy represents a valued trait and is an important part of socioemotional development, its influence on children's physical health is unknown. This study examined whether empathy moderates the association between perceived interparental conflict and both child systemic inflammation and parent-rated overall child health in a sample of children between the ages of seven to nine. Children and their parents participating in the long-term evaluation of the Family Foundations program, a randomized trial of a perinatal preventative intervention, provided data approximately eight years following enrollment into the program. We collected peripheral blood samples via dried blood spots, anthropometric measurements, and child and parent psychosocial questionnaires. Results indicated significant positive main effects of child empathy on both C-reactive protein (CRP; B = 0.26, SE = 0.11, p =.026) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6; B = 0.20, SE = 0.10, p =.045) levels. Further, child affective empathy moderated the associations between perceived interparental conflict and both CRP (B = 0.39, SE = 0.19, p =.050) and parent-reported child health (B = 0.30, SE = 0.13, p =.021), such that greater empathy strengthened the negative associations between interparental conflict and child health. Overall, findings suggests that there may be a biological cost of being more empathic in high-conflict environments and highlight the need for tools to help more empathic children appropriately manage vicarious emotions.

Satisfaction with diabetes involvement: Exploring parent and adolescent perspectives.

AIMS: Both parent and adolescent involvement in type 1 diabetes management are critical during adolescence. The current study sought to understand the factors associated with parent and adolescent satisfaction with their own and one another's involvement in diabetes management. METHODS: Cross-sectional baseline data from 157 parent-adolescent dyads enrolled in an RCT were used. Adolescent ages ranged from 12 to 19 (Mage = 14.7, SD = 1.89) and were balanced by gender (50.3% male). Paired t-tests examined concordance between parent and adolescent satisfaction, bivariate correlations identified correlates, and regressions examined unique associations. RESULTS: Roughly, 43% of adolescents and 29% of parents were very satisfied with adolescent involvement in diabetes management, whereas 71% of adolescents and 26.1% of parents were very satisfied with parent involvement. Indicators of better glycaemic health (via higher percent time-in-range and lower HbA1c and percent time in hyperglycaemia) and psychosocial functioning (less diabetes distress and depression) were correlated with higher satisfaction. Parent satisfaction with adolescent involvement was higher among older adolescents (R = 0.198, p = 0.013). Non-Hispanic white youth were more satisfied with their own involvement than youth of colour (t(149) = -2.783, p = 0.003). Both percent time-in-range and one's own diabetes distress uniquely related to parent and adolescent satisfaction with adolescent involvement. Conversely, parent satisfaction with their own involvement was only uniquely associated with parent diabetes distress. CONCLUSION: Both adolescent and parents' satisfaction with adolescents' involvement in self-management are indicators of both glycaemic control and psychosocial well-being, whereas parents' self-evaluations are more closely tied to diabetes-specific distress.

The motives and experiences of donor-conceived persons requesting the identity of their sperm donors.

RESEARCH QUESTION: What are the motives and experiences of donor-conceived persons (DCP) who search for and receive information about their identity-release sperm donor? DESIGN: A qualitative interview study with 29 individuals (21 women, seven men, one non-binary) who were consecutively recruited after having requested information about their sperm donor at five Swedish University hospitals. All participants were conceived after donor insemination to heterosexual couples within an identity-release donation programme. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face or via telephone between September 2016 and November 2019, and transcribed audio recordings were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The motives and experiences of DCP were described in two themes. The theme 'donor information can fill different needs' describes that varying motives, thoughts and feelings are related to searching for and obtaining donor information. Motives ranged from curiosity and a desire for agency over one's conception to hopes of finding a new father. The theme 'navigating donor information in a relational context' describes the process of obtaining donor information as interpersonal, highlighting that the DCP needs to balance the interests of different stakeholders, and that obtaining donor information can challenge the relationship quality with the father. CONCLUSIONS: Obtaining the donor's identity has the potential to affect the understanding of DCP of themselves, and to influence relationships within their family in unexpected and challenging ways. Therefore, adequate resources should be allocated to support the growing number of families after identity-release donation.

Childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder: definition, risk factors, pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Psychological birth trauma and childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder represent a substantial burden of disease with 6.6 million mothers and 1.7 million fathers or co-parents affected by childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder worldwide each year. There is mounting evidence to indicate that parents who develop childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder do so as a direct consequence of a traumatic childbirth experience. High-risk groups, such as those who experience preterm birth, stillbirth, or preeclampsia, have higher prevalence rates. The main risks include antenatal factors (eg, depression in pregnancy, fear of childbirth, poor health or complications in pregnancy, history of trauma or sexual abuse, or mental health problems), perinatal factors (eg, negative subjective birth experience, operative birth, obstetrical complications, and severe maternal morbidity, as well as maternal near misses, lack of support, dissociation), and postpartum factors (eg, depression, postpartum physical complications, and poor coping and stress). The link between birth events and childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder provides a valuable opportunity to prevent traumatic childbirths and childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder from occurring in the first place. Childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder is an extremely distressing mental disorder and has a substantial negative impact on those who give birth, fathers or co-parents, and, potentially, the whole family. Still, a traumatic childbirth experience and childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder remain largely unrecognized in maternity services and are not routinely screened for during pregnancy and the postpartum period. In fact, there are gaps in the evidence on how, when, and who to screen. Similarly, there is a lack of evidence on how best to treat those affected. Primary prevention efforts (eg, screening for antenatal risk factors, use of trauma-informed care) are aimed at preventing a traumatic childbirth experience and childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder in the first place by eliminating or reducing risk factors for childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Secondary prevention approaches (eg, trauma-focused psychological therapies, early psychological interventions) aim to identify those who have had a traumatic childbirth experience and to intervene to prevent the development of childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Tertiary prevention (eg, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) seeks to ensure that people with childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder are identified and treated to recovery so that childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder does not become chronic. Adequate prevention, screening, and intervention could alleviate a considerable amount of suffering in affected families. In light of the available research on the impact of childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder on families, it is important to develop and evaluate assessment, prevention, and treatment interventions that target the birthing person, the couple dyad, the parent-infant dyad, and the family as a whole. Further research should focus on the inclusion of couples in different constellations and, more generally, on the inclusion of more diverse populations in diverse settings. The paucity of national and international policy guidance on the prevention, care, and treatment of psychological birth trauma and the lack of formal psychological birth trauma services and training, highlight the need to engage with service managers and policy makers.