Nina Halme

The Effect of Parenting Stress on Fathers’ Availability and Engagement

The present study was designed to shed light on the relation between parenting stress, fathers alcohol use, child characteristics and fathers engagement and availability. The study cohort comprised 821 fathers of preschool children in Finland. Parenting stress and childs mood, acceptability and demandingness were related to fathers engagement to the preschooler and to the extent of the fathers availability. Parenting stress began a cycle of alcohol abuse and child-negative characteristics, and eventually led to a decrease in joint father–child activities, fathers feeling of compulsory engagement, daily conflict situations, difficulty in including the child in everyday activities and a reduction in the amount of time spent directly or indirectly together.

Predictors of depressive symptoms among coronary heart disease patients: A cross-sectional study nine years after coronary artery bypass grafting

OBJECTIVE This study sought to identify the incidence of depression and its associations with demographic, lifestyle, perceived health, symptoms, treatment, and social support variables in patients 9 years after a coronary artery bypass graft. METHODS The questionnaire was mailed to 152 surviving patients who had undergone a coronary artery bypass graft 9 years earlier, and who had been respondents in an earlier study. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, and social support was measured using Social Support from the Network Scale. Descriptive statistics and the linear regression method were used for analysis. RESULTS Depressive symptoms were reported by one fourth of the patients. The predictors for depressive symptoms included gender, perceived health, cardiac ischemic symptoms at rest, and emotional social support, which explained 24% of the variance. Controlling for gender revealed that the predictors for women and men were different. CONCLUSIONS Depression is more difficult to predict in men than in women.

Determinants of maternal and paternal empowerment: exploring the role of childhood adversities

Background: Childhood adversities are known to increase the life-long risk of negative life events and health problems. Less is known about how childhood conditions affect parental empowerment, which is crucial to family well-being and resources. This study aimed to find out how parents’ own childhood adversities predict maternal and paternal empowerment, and how these predictors differ between mothers and fathers. Methods: The study design was cross-sectional. The sample consisted of mothers (n = 571) and fathers (n = 384) of children aged 0–9 years in Finland. Parents were selected using stratified random sampling in 2009. Parental empowerment was measured by the Generic Family Empowerment Scale. Eleven types of childhood adversity were inquired about. Associations were examined by linear regression analysis, and empowerment was predicted by multiple linear regression. Results: Childhood adversities had a negative effect on parental empowerment. The effect was more significant on maternal than paternal empowerment. Adversities were particularly associated with parents’ confidence in managing their children in everyday life. Parental empowerment of both mothers and fathers was affected significantly by their parents’ mental health problems and serious conflicts within their families during childhood. Financial difficulties, parents’ unemployment and bullying at school affected maternal empowerment. Conclusions: Early recognition of adversities and appropriate intervention may help to increase present and future well-being and prevent long-term difficulties of each family member.