ABSTRACT
Findings are reported from Phase 2 of a longitudinal study of family functioning in heterosexual-couple families with 5 year olds conceived using identity-release egg donation. Seventy-two egg donation families were compared to 50 in vitro fertilization (IVF) families (ethnicity: 93% White British) using standardized observational, interview, and questionnaire measures. There were no differences between family types in the quality of mother-child or father-child interaction, apart from lower structuring by fathers in egg donation families. Egg donation mothers and fathers reported higher levels of parenting stress and lower levels of confidence and competence than their IVF counterparts. Egg donation mothers reported lower social support and couple relationship quality, greater anger toward their child, and perceived their child as more angry and less happy, compared to IVF mothers. Egg donation fathers showed greater criticism and anger toward their child, less joy in parenting, and were less satisfied with the support they received, than IVF fathers. Children in egg donation families showed higher levels of externalizing problems than IVF children as rated by mothers, fathers, and teachers, whereas they were rated as having higher levels of internalizing problems by teachers only. Externalizing problems were predicted by mothers' lower initial social support, steeper increases in parenting stress and greater concurrent criticism, whereas internalizing problems were associated with poorer initial couple relationship quality as rated by mothers. Both were predicted by fewer gains in reflective functioning. There was a moderation effect such that parenting stress was a stronger predictor of externalizing problems for egg donation than IVF families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Mothers , Parenting , Female , Humans , Child, Preschool , Male , Longitudinal Studies , Mothers/psychology , Parenting/psychology , Fertilization in Vitro/psychology , Parent-Child Relations , Fathers/psychologyABSTRACT
The genetic and environmental etiologies of sex-typed behavior were examined during the preschool years in a sample of 3,990 three- to four-year-old twin and non-twin sibling pairs. Results showed moderate genetic and significant shared environmental influence for boys and substantial genetic and moderate shared environmental influence for girls. For both boys and girls, twin-specific shared environmental effects contributed to twins' similarity in gender role behavior and accounted for approximately 22% of the shared environmental variance. These findings extend previous research conducted with older samples by showing not only important genetic contributions to gender role behavior but also an important role for shared environment. The inclusion of non-twin siblings showed that some of the shared environmental influence is specific to twins.
Subject(s)
Gender Identity , Genotype , Social Environment , Stereotyping , Twins/genetics , Child, Preschool , Cohort Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Personality Assessment/statistics & numerical data , Phenotype , Psychometrics , Siblings , Statistics as Topic , Twins/psychology , Twins, Dizygotic/genetics , Twins, Dizygotic/psychology , Twins, Monozygotic/genetics , Twins, Monozygotic/psychologyABSTRACT
Both physiological and self-measurement methods have been employed to collect data on the dimensions of the erect penis. However, self-measurement using paper strips has often been favored as a less intrusive and time-consuming method, despite the recognition of the increased chance of bias through exaggeration. The current study aimed to establish the test-retest reliability of measurement of the erect penis using paper strips in a sample of 312 gay men. The men were issued with color-coded measuring strips printed with instructions but no calibrations, and asked to measure both the length and circumference of their partners' erect penis. Three months later they were asked to repeat these measures. Mean length on first measurement was 15.3 cm and 15.2 cm on second measurement. Mean girth at first measurement was 12.5 cm and 12.6 cm at second measurement. Test-retest reliability of measurement was found to be moderately low at r = .60 for length and r = .53 for girth. No relation was found between measurement discrepancy and the age, social class, education, ethnicity, or employment status of the partner taking the measurements. Although self-measurement strips are both convenient and acceptable, and widely reported in the literature, they only have moderate test-retest reliability. This may be due to both natural variability in penis size within subjects over time and unreliability of the measurement method.