Fathers' Multiple-Partner Fertility and Children's Educational Outcomes

Fathers' multiple-partner fertility (MPF) is associated with substantially worse educational outcomes for children. We focus on children in fathers' second families that are nuclear: households consisting of a man, a woman, their joint children, and no other children. We analyze outcomes for almost 75,000 Norwegian children, all of whom lived in nuclear families until at least age 18. Children with MPF fathers are more likely than other children from nuclear families to drop out of secondary school (24% vs. 17%) and less likely to obtain a bachelor's degree (44% vs. 51%). These gaps remain substantial—at 4 and 5 percentage points, respectively—after we control for child and parental characteristics, such as income, wealth, education, and age. Resource competition with the children in the father's first family does not explain the differences in educational outcomes. We find that the association between a father's previous childless marriage and his children's educational outcomes is similar to that between a father's MPF and his children's educational outcomes. Birth order does not explain these results. This similarity suggests that selection is the primary explanation for the association between fathers' MPF and children's educational outcomes.

Is staff consistency important to parents’ satisfaction in a longitudinal study of children at risk for type 1 diabetes: the TEDDY study

Background Participants’ study satisfaction is important for both compliance with study protocols and retention, but research on parent study satisfaction is rare. This study sought to identify factors associated with parent study satisfaction in The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study, a longitudinal, multinational (US, Finland, Germany, Sweden) study of children at risk for type 1 diabetes. The role of staff consistency to parent study satisfaction was a particular focus. Methods Parent study satisfaction was measured by questionnaire at child-age 15 months (5579 mothers, 4942 fathers) and child-age four years (4010 mothers, 3411 fathers). Multiple linear regression analyses were used to identify sociodemographic factors, parental characteristics, and study variables associated with parent study satisfaction at both time points. Results Parent study satisfaction was highest in Sweden and the US, compared to Finland. Parents who had an accurate perception of their child’s type 1 diabetes risk and those who believed they can do something to prevent type 1 diabetes were more satisfied. More educated parents and those with higher depression scores had lower study satisfaction scores. After adjusting for these factors, greater study staff change frequency was associated with lower study satisfaction in European parents (mothers at child-age 15 months: − 0.30,95% Cl − 0.36, − 0.24, p < 0.001; mothers at child-age four years: -0.41, 95% Cl − 0.53, − 0.29, p < 0.001; fathers at child-age 15 months: -0.28, 95% Cl − 0.34, − 0.21, p < 0.001; fathers at child-age four years: -0.35, 95% Cl − 0.48, − 0.21, p < 0.001). Staff consistency was not associated with parent study satisfaction in the US. However, the number of staff changes was markedly higher in the US compared to Europe. Conclusions Sociodemographic factors, parental characteristics, and study-related variables were all related to parent study satisfaction. Those that are potentially modifiable are of particular interest as possible targets of future efforts to improve parent study satisfaction. Three such factors were identified: parent accuracy about the child’s type 1 diabetes risk, parent beliefs that something can be done to reduce the child’s risk, and study staff consistency. However, staff consistency was important only for European parents. Trial registration NCT00279318.

Vliv rodičovských charakteristik na výběr partnera

The aim of this report is to present the research project „Effect of parental characteristics on mate choice“ supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA18–15168S). It is a multidisciplinary project involving not only psychological but also biological and chemical methods, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the studied phenomenon. The main aim of the project is to investigate whether people choose mates similar to their opposite-sex parents in the face, body odor, voice, temperament, and personality.

The Associations of Active Travel to School With Physical Activity and Screen Time Among Adolescents: Do Individual and Parental Characteristics Matter?

Little is known about the relationship of active travel to school (ATS) with physical activity (PA) and screen time (ST) by individual and parental characteristics among adolescents, especially in China. To address the research gap, this study aimed to explore the difference of sex, age, living environment, parental occupation and education level in the relationship of ATS with PA and ST among students of grades 7–12 (aged 10–18 years) using cross-sectional data. In 13 cities of Hubei province, China, students from 39 public schools were recruited to engage in the survey. In total, 5,898 students (response rate = 89.6%) were invited into this study. Participants were required to report their ATS (including its types), PA and ST as well as sociodemographic information using a validated questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were used to report the information of all variables. Regression models were used to analyse the relationships of ATS and its types with PA and ST. In a total of 4,128 participants (boys: 50.9%; younger adolescents: 61.9%) included in the final analysis, the proportion of those with ATS was 47.3%. Regarding the types of ATS, walking accounted for over 30%, while cycling was 13.2%. Participants with ATS were more likely to have sufficient PA (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.14–1.39), especially among boys, younger adolescents and those with lower parental education level. However, ATS was not associated with ST (OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.86–1.01). Participants with cycling had a higher odds ratio of being physically active (OR for cycling = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.27–1.70; OR for walking = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.06–1.32). The association of ATS types with PA and ST differed by gender, age, living environment and parental educational level as well as occupations. ATS may be a useful approach to increase PA among adolescents, but this should be explained by individual and parental characteristics.

The influence of personality traits on university performance: Evidence from Italian freshmen students

Despite several attempts to provide a definite pattern regarding the effects of personality traits on performance in higher education, the debate over the nature of the relationship is far from being conclusive. The use of different subject pools and sample sizes, as well as the use of identification strategies that either do not adequately account for selection bias or are unable to establish causality between measures of academic performance and noncognitive skills, are possible sources of heterogeneity. This paper investigates the impact of the Big Five traits, as measured before the beginning of the academic year, on the grade point average achieved in the first year after the enrolment, taking advantage of a unique and large dataset from a cohort of Italian students in all undergraduate programs containing detailed information on student and parental characteristics. Relying on a robust strategy to credibly satisfy the conditional independence assumption, we find that higher levels of conscientiousness and openness to experience positively affect student score.

An Interactive Family Tourism Decision Model

To establish an interactive model reflecting how children’s involvement in family tourism decisions interacts with internal and external factors, this study examines the interrelationships between children’s individual characteristics (tourism knowledge and tourism attachment), parental characteristics (socio- and concept-orientation family communication patterns), and children’s influence on family tourism decision making (initiation and search/decision stages) using structural equation modeling. Results reveal that tourism knowledge and socio- and concept-orientation patterns are positively related to children’s influence on both decision stages. Specifically, tourism knowledge mediates relationships between socio- and concept-orientation patterns and children’s influence on the initiation stage; tourism attachment mediates the relationship between the concept-orientation pattern and children’s influence on the initiation stage. Lastly, theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

Parental bereavement – impact of death of neonates and children under 12 years on personhood of parents: a systematic scoping review

Background Losing a child tragically impacts the well-being and functioning of parents. With these effects extending beyond emotional, physical morbidity and compromising self-perceptions, appropriate, longitudinal, timely and personalised support is key to effective care of bereaved parents. However, in the absence of a comprehensive understanding of parental bereavement, effective support of bereaved parents remains suboptimal. To address this gap, we scrutinise prevailing data on the effects of a child’s death, aged 0–12 years, through the lens of the Ring Theory of Personhood (RToP). Methods To study prevailing accounts of bereaved parents following the death of a child, we adopt Krishna’s Systematic Evidence Based Approach (SEBA) to structure our Systematic Scoping Review (SSR in SEBA). Results Three thousand seventy-four abstracts were reviewed, 160 full text articles were evaluated, and 111 articles were included and analysed using thematic and content analysis. Four themes/categories were identified relating to the four rings of the RToP. Findings reveal that static concepts of protective and risk factors for grief are misplaced and that the support of healthcare professionals is key to assisting bereaved parents. Conclusion In the absence of consistent support of bereaved parents, this study highlights the need for effective training of healthcare professionals, beginning with an appreciation that every aspect of an individual parent’s personhood is impacted by the loss of their child. Acknowledging grief as a complex, evolving and personalised process subjected to parental characteristics, settings, context and available support, this SSR in SEBA calls attention to effective nurturing of the relationship between parents and healthcare professionals, and suggests use of the RToP to assess and direct personalised, timely, specific support of parents in evolving conditions. We believe the findings of this review also call for further studies to support healthcare professionals as they journey with bereaved parents.

Comparing self-report and parental report of psychopathologies in adolescents with substance use disorders

Both internalizing and externalizing psychopathologies interfere with the treatment of substance use disorders (SUD) in adolescents. Self-reports of psychopathologies are likely biased and may be validated with parental reports. We compared N = 70 standardized self-reports of adolescents entering outpatient SUD treatment (13.2–18.6 years old, 43% female) to parental reports on the same psychopathologies, and explored biases due to gender, age, SUD diagnoses and SUD severity. Bivariate bootstrapped Pearson correlation coefficients revealed several small to moderate correlations between both reporting sources (r = 0.29–0.49, all pcorrected ≤ 0.039). A repeated measures MANOVA revealed moderately stronger parental reports of adolescent psychopathologies compared to adolescent self-reports for most externalizing problems (dissocial and aggressive behaviors, p ≤ 0.016, η2part = 0.09–0.12) and social/attention problems (p ≤ 0.012, η2part = 0.10), but no differences for most internalizing problems (p ≥ 0.073, η2part = 0.02–0.05). Differences were not associated with other patient or parental characteristics including age, gender, number of co-occurring diagnoses or presence/absence of a certain SUD (all puncorrected ≥ 0.088). We concluded that treatment-seeking German adolescents with SUD present with a multitude of extensive psychopathologies. The relevant deviation between self- and parental reports indicate that the combination of both reports might help to counteract dissimulation and other reporting biases. The generalizability of results to inpatients, psychiatry patients in general, or adolescents without SUD, as well as the validity of self- and parental reports in comparison to clinical judgements remain unknown.

Risk of hypertension in school-aged children with different parental risk: a longitudinal study from childhood to young adulthood

Background Although previous studies have shown the relationship between different parental factors and children’s blood pressure status, there is limited data on the cumulative effect of these factors. Considering parental socio-demographic, behavioral and cardio-metabolic characteristics, the current study aimed to distinguish parental risk clusters and their impact on the incidence of hypertension in school-age children over 13 years. Methods Parental characteristics of 1669 children, including age, education, employment, smoking, physical activity, metabolic syndrome (MetS), hypertension (HTN), weight status, and diabetes were considered to categorize parents into low and high-risk clusters. Crude incidence rates (per 10,000 person-years) of HTN in children were assessed in each maternal and paternal cluster. Using Cox proportional hazard model, results on the association between parental risk clusters and HTN incidence in children were reported in five different models. Results Mean age of children was 13.96 ± 2.89 years, and 51.2% (n = 854) were girls. MetS, HTN, and weight status were the most important factors distinguishing low and high-risk parental clusters, respectively. Crude incidence rates (per 10,000 person-years) of HTN were 86 (95% CI: 71–106) and 38 (95% CI, 29–52) in boys and girls, respectively. Moreover, incidence rates (per 10,000 person-years) of HTN were 50 (95% CI, 40–63) and 80 (95% CI, 64–102) in maternal low and high-risk clusters, respectively. The incidence rates (per 10,000 person-years) of HTN in paternal low and high-risk clusters were 53 (95% CI, 41–70) and 68 (95% CI, 56–84), respectively. Conclusion Our findings underscore the prognostic value of maternal characteristics in predicting the incidence of HTN in their offspring. The current results could be valuable in planning related programs to prevent hypertension in similar communities.

Barriers and Supports in Empowering Parents Care for Children with Cancer

Cancer that occurs in children does not only affect children, but also parents. Parents experience anxiety, stress, fear of losing their children, and helplessness in caring for their children, so that parents are less than optimal in caring for their children. Parent empowerment can increase parents' knowledge, confidence, and ability to care for their children. Previous research found several obstacles to parent empowerment carried out by nurses so that parent empowerment was not optimal in its implementation. Knowing barriers and supports in implementation of parent empowerment in caring for children with cancer can support implementation of parent empowerment to be more optimal. The purpose of this study was to explore barriers and supports in parent empowerment in caring for children with cancer based on the nurse's perception. The design of this study was qualitative research design with a phenomenological approach. The data was collected by in-depth interview method using semi-structured interview guidelines on six nurses who were selected by purposive sampling technique. The data analysis was carried out by thematic analysis with the analysis stage according to Colaizzi. The results of this study were resulted in four themes, namely parental attitudes, parental characteristics, attitudes of nurses, availability of nurses and facilities. This study concluded that implementation of empowering parents to care for children with cancer became more optimal by knowing the barrier and supports in empowering parents care for children with cancer and nurses could make more effective planning in caring for children with cancer.