Birgitte R. Mednick

Father's effect on infant birth weight.

OBJECTIVE We sought to determine whether paternal size at birth and during young adulthood influences the birth weight of the offspring. STUDY DESIGN This historic cohort study followed up girls born in Copenhagen during 1959 to 1961. Their pregnancies in 1974 to 1989 were traced through the Danish Population Register, and the Personal Identification Numbers of the fathers of the children were obtained. Paternal birth weight was obtained from midwifery records and adult stature from military draft records. RESULTS Compared with fathers who weighed at least 4 kg at birth, fathers who weighed 3 to 3.99 kg at birth had infants who were 109 gm lighter, and fathers who weighed <3 kg had infants who were 176 gm lighter after adjustment for maternal birth weight and adult stature, smoking, and medical and socioeconomic factors. After adjustment, fathers in the lowest quartile of adult body mass index had infants that were 105 gm lighter than those of fathers in the highest quartile. Both paternal birth weight and adult body mass index exhibited significant trends in association with infant birth weight. CONCLUSION Independently of maternal size, the fathers physical stature, particularly his own size at birth, influences the birth weight of his children.

Preterm and small-for-gestational-age birth across generations

OBJECTIVE Our purpose was to determine whether women who were themselves small for gestational age at birth are at risk of giving birth to a small-for-gestational-age child and whether women who were themselves preterm at birth are at risk for preterm delivery. STUDY DESIGN Women born in Copenhagen as subjects in the Danish Perinatal Study (1959 to 1961) were traced through the Danish Population Register. Information was obtained on their pregnancies during 1974 through 1989. RESULTS A total of 25% of the children of small-for-gestational-age women were small for gestational age compared with 11% of the children of non-small-for-gestational-age women. Eleven percent of the children of preterm women were preterm compared with 7% of the children of women born at term. The adjusted odds ratios were 2.0 (95% confidence interval 1.4 to 3.0) for women who were small for gestational age to have small-for-gestational-age children and 1.5 (95% confidence interval 0.9 to 2.5) for women who were born preterm to have preterm children. Small-for-gestational-age women were not at significantly increased risk of preterm delivery (odds ratio 1.2), and preterm women were not at significantly increased risk of having small-for-gestational-age children (odds ratio 1.3). CONCLUSIONS Reduced intrauterine growth of the mother is a risk factor for reduced intrauterine growth of her children. However, preterm birth of the mother is not strongly associated with preterm birth of her children.

Personality and Demographic Characteristics of Mothers and their Ratings of Child Difficultness

The relationships between an indicator of child difficultness and a set of maternal and familial factors were examined in three samples: ages 3-12 months; 12-24 months; and 24-36 months. After initial attempts at using a traditional psychometric approach to measuring difficultness had resulted in a methodologically questionable indicator, factor analytical techniques were employed to develop an alternative indicator of difficultness for each sample. Maternal anxiety was significantly correlated with child difficultness in all three samples. Mothers effectiveness, nervousness, extroversion, and contentment showed the strongest correlations in the age group 12-24 months, and particularly in the male subsample. Familial and demographic factors showed no associations with difficultness in any of the samples. The similarity between these findings based on a Danish sample and those reported in previous studies involving other nationalities confirms the notion of a reliable, relatively culture-independent influence of personality characteristics of the rater on measures of infant and child difficultness.

Long-term effects of parental divorce on young adult male crime

The purpose of this study was to explore the long-term effects of parental divorce on young adult male crime from a longitudinal perspective. Four hundred and twenty-three males were randomly selected from a Danish birth cohort. Results of analyses of variance showed an initial significant relationship between divorce and young adult crime. However, the effects of divorce disappeared when further path analysis controlled for the effects of social class and fathers criminality. In addition, time of divorce did not have an effect on later criminal behavior.

The meaning of health and illness: some considerations for health psychology

A importância de se conhecerem os conceitos de saude e da doenca dos individuos vem sendo reconhecida pelos pesquisadores da area pelas suas implicacoes teoricas e praticas para a psicologia da saude e da educacao. Como as evidencias vem sugerindo que as cognicoes relativas a saude e doenca exercem um impacto nas atitudes ligadas a saude e no engajamento em comportamentos saudaveis das pessoas, esses conceitos estao sendo cada vez mais investigados. Em consonância, o objetivo deste trabalho e rever criticamente a literatura a respeito dos fatores subjacentes as concepcoes de saude e doenca dos individuos. Os dados sao discutidos quanto a suas potenciais implicacoes para a psicologia da saude.Abstract The importance of understanding individuals’ ideas of health and illness is well acknowledged by research for itstheoretical and practical implications for both health psychology and education. Insofar as researchers agree thatindividuals’ ideas of health and illness have an impact on their health attitudes and behaviour, people’s thoughts ofhealth and health and illness − related issues are increasingly being investigated. In consonance, the objective of thisstudy is to critically review major ideas that underlies individuals’ concepts of health and illness. Findings arediscussed in terms of their potential contributions for health psychology. Keywords: Concept of health; Concept of illness; Health psychology. O significado de saude e doenca: algumas consideracoes para a psicologia da saude Resumo A importância de se conhecerem os conceitos de saude e da doenca dos individuos vem sendo reconhecida pelospesquisadores da area pelas suas implicacoes teoricas e praticas para a psicologia da saude e da educacao. Como asevidencias vem sugerindo que as cognicoes relativas a saude e doenca exercem um impacto nas atitudes ligadas asaude e no engajamento em comportamentos saudaveis das pessoas, esses conceitos estao sendo cada vez maisinvestigados. Em consonância, o objetivo deste trabalho e rever criticamente a literatura a respeito dos fatoressubjacentes as concepcoes de saude e doenca dos individuos. Os dados sao discutidos quanto a suas potenciaisimplicacoes para a psicologia da saude.

Teenage pregnancy and perinatal mortality

In the general population teenage pregnancies present an elevated rate of perinatal mortality compared with pregnancies of women in their twenties. In two large-scale university hospital studies (one American, one Danish), the teenage pregnancies showed lower perinatal mortality than those of any other age group. This article attempts to determine the origin of these differing results. A comparative analysis was conducted focusing on methodologies, subject characteristics, and treatment procedures involved in the two classes of studies, which involved representative populations and university hospital samples. The uniformly high quality medical treatment provided to all subjects in the university hospital samples contrasted with the uneven quality of treatment found in population studies constituted the most important difference. Since pregnant teenagers generally tend to be of lower socioeconomic status, they are likely to receive inferior medical care. It was argued that this factor could, to large extent, be responsible for the elevated mortality rates found in teenage pregnancies in representative populations.

Problems with Traditional Strategies in Mental Health Research

When we consider the prodigious efforts that have been made to understand the etiology of the variety of psychiatric and social deviance that humans exhibit, it can prove depressing for a researcher to assess the yield. Some have responded to this apparent lack of progress by searching for mystical sources of understanding or for magical, often poetic, treatments. Others have responded with nihilistic humor. One observer has characterized the growing mountain of writings on the etiology of mental illness as having produced an “independent problem of waste disposal.” J. N. Morris (1975, p. 218), the English epidemiologist, has rather dryly commented on schizophrenia research: “Up to now, unhappily, this activity has yielded few new facts; a deficiency somewhat obscured by the communicativeness of psychiatrists and social scientists.”

Delivery of preterm and small for gestational age infants across generations

Two generations of women were studied to clarify the influence of a womans own preterm delivery or intrauterine growth retardation on her later risk of delivering preterm or growth‐retarded infants. The first generation consists of the cohort of women who gave birth at the National University Hospital (Rigshospitalet) in Copenhagen from 1959 to 1961 and the second, those of their daughters that have delivered themselves. The background of the study and the procedures involved are described. The percentage of data obtained and the preliminary findings concerning the relationship between social and demographic factors and the willingness of subjects to participate are included.

Academic and psychosocial characteristics of low-birthweight adolescents

Abstract A sample of 94 children with low birthweights (LBW ≤ 2500 grams) was identified in a group of 857 children who took part in an 18‐year follow‐up study of the Danish Prospective Perinatal Cohort. The LBW group was compared with the rest of the sample on a set of long‐term intellectual and psychosocial outcomes. In addition, the relative predictive power of low birthweight and a set of environmental variables regressed on two adolescent academic outcomes was examined. No significant residual or complicating effects of LBW were found on any outcomes after 18 years. However, full‐birthweight adolescents possessed diferential characteristics with respect to the pattern of correlated environmental variables. LBW adolescents appear to have a greater sensitivity to environmental influences. For males, stability of adult figures and general order and structure are more conducive to an optimal outcome; for females, the strongest predictor was level of maternal psychological adaptation or general contentment.

Some Recommendations for the Design and Conduct of Longitudinal Investigations

The longitudinal research described in this volume represents many subject years of experience. In a number of these chapters, these experiences are translated into practical and conceptual advice to anyone whose foresight is so deficient that he or she would begin a twenty-year project. This brief concluding chapter attempts to summarize those suggestions.