COPEWithME: The Role of Parental Ability to Support and Promote Child Resilient Behaviors During the COVID-19 Emergency

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to lockdown in many countries and Italy was the first one interested in Europe. The lockdown strategy is an essential step to curb the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases, but it is very demanding for the population involved and especially for children and their families. The aims of the present study are: (a) to explore the psychometric properties of the COPEWithME questionnaire, a new tool to evaluate parents' ability to support and promote child resilient behaviors, (b) to investigate the relation between parents' resilience and their ability to support and promote child resilient behaviors with child resilience and child stress-related behaviors assessed during the COVID-19 outbreak. Participants (N = 158 mothers, with 6- to 11-years-old children, 53% female), who were volunteers and anonymous, filled out an online questionnaire composed by CD-RISC 25, PMK-CYRM-R, and COPEWithME. With regard to the COPEWithME, validation exploratory factor analyses revealed a one-factor solution of 18 items. The COPEWithME positively correlates both with mothers' resilience and with children's resilience. Mediation analysis showed that the association between mothers' resilience and children's stress-related behaviors was mediated by the mothers' ability to support and promote child resilient behaviors. The COPEWithME, to our knowledge, is the first measure of parents' ability to support and promote resilient behaviors in school-age children, a key parenting skill that may help children in dealing with stressful situations such as the COVID-19 outbreak. These findings represent useful insights to advance mental health interventions in the post-pandemic phases suggesting focusing on a family's resources and resilience processes.

The interplay between maternal childhood maltreatment, parental coping strategies as well as endangered parenting behavior during the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

The SARS-CoV-2-pandemic is associated different challenges, especially for families. The disruption and challenges require parents to develop strategies to cope with the current situation. One factor that may influence how parents deal with pandemic-associated stressors are experiences of parental childhood maltreatment (CM), which represent a high risk of engaging in endangered parenting. A decisive candidate for the connection between parental CM and the transgenerational transmission could be the parental ability to employ coping strategies. Mothers of a well-documented birth cohort for investigating the pathways leading to resilience or vulnerability in the transgenerational transmission of CM were imbedded in an online “SARS-CoV-2 pandemic survey” assessing maternal ability for coping strategies and the dimension of endangered maternal parenting behavior. 91 mothers completed the online survey. To describe the maternal CM, data from a longitudinal survey were used. Our mediation analysis shows a significant positive relationship between the sum of maternal CM experiences, lack of coping strategies and endangered parenting behavior. This suggests a partial mediation of the association between CM and endangered parenting behavior as the direct effect remained significant when the maternal lack of coping strategies was included as the mediator. Parental CM is a risk factor for coping with stressful situation as well as for endangered parenting behavior. The ability to deal with stress seems to have a significant influence on the context of a possible transgenerational transmission of CM. The results underline the need to consider the unique needs of families with children and to support them as to how to overcome the current crisis.

Co-evolution of Traits

Often traits interact, so that considering the evolution of each in isolation gives too limited an account. As is demonstrated in this chapter, it is then crucial to allow for the co-evolution of traits when analysing evolutionary stability. In particular this is important when there there is disruptive selection. Criteria for stability are presented and are applied to a variety of systems. It is shown that role asymmetries can lead to different predictions compared with the analogous situation with the same payoffs but without such asymmetries. Disruptive selection can lead to the evolution of anisogamy. When parental ability and parental effort co-evolve, disruptive selection can lead to one sex evolving to be better at care and doing most of the care. Furthermore, disruptive selection can lead to multiple ESSs, as when prosocial behaviour and the propensity to disperse from the natal site co-evolve. As is shown, disruptive forces can also act when there is learning, leading to specialization. This chapter sets the scene for the chapter that follows, where the level of cooperation shown by individuals co-evolves with choosiness and social sensitivity.

Parental Perception of Childhood Anaemia and Efficiency of Instrument Assisted Pallor Detection among Mothers in Southeast Nigeria: A Field Validation Study

Background. Control of anemia can be achieved with early detection of pallor by parents at home. However, most parents lack the capacity to recognize pallor; thus most cases of anaemia are detected during hospital visit due to other symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate parental ability to detect pallor when aided with the anaemia screening tool. Methods. In the study information on the symptoms of illness and parental knowledge on anaemia. Their ability to detect anaemia aided with the Home-Base anaemia-screen tool (HB-Anae) was compared to the healthcare providers’ assessment of pallor. The haemoglobin estimation with the Hb-301 haemoglobinometer was used as the gold standard. Results. None of the children in their previous illnesses had paleness as a complaint. Few (20.8%) parents knew what anaemia meant. Only 18.3% knew sites on the body where pallor can be detected. Many (55.1%; 304/552) surveyed children were anaemic (Hb<11g/dl) based on HB 301. Majority (88.8%; 270/304) of the parents aided with the HB-Anae were able to detect pallor on the children who were anaemic compared to 95.1% (289/304) detected by healthcare workers unaided, and the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.25). Conclusion. There was poor knowledge on anaemia among parents. The ability of parents to detect anaemia could be improved with the simple HB-Anae screen tool.

Online Perceptions of Mothers About Breastfeeding and Introducing Formula: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Although the benefits of breastfeeding are well established for babies and their mothers, many women give formula to their infants. Whether to breastfeed or to give infant formula is a complex decision to make. Many parents use the Internet to find information and support that relate to infant feeding decisions. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze the perceptions of mothers, who are discussing the topic on Web forums, about introducing infant formula. METHODS This is a qualitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study on online data from parenting Web forums. The text was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS The analysis resulted in 1 main theme, “balancing between social expectations and confidence in your parental ability,” which is further divided into 3 themes: “striving to be a good mother,” “striving for your own well-being,” and “striving to discover your own path.” CONCLUSIONS Breastfeeding is complex, and health care personnel can, with a more open approach toward formula, create better support for mothers by helping them to be more confident in their parental ability.

The fish that cried wolf: the role of parental care in novel predator recognition in juvenile convict cichlids (Amatitlania siquia)

This study tested if convict cichlids (Amatitlania siquia) with prior predator experience could socially transfer their predator knowledge to their offspring. Prior to reproduction, pairs were assigned to either an experimental or control associative learning treatment, and given novel predator odour from a wolf cichlid (Parachromis dovii) paired with either alarm cue or water respectively. We hypothesized that upon re-exposure to the odour, experimental pairs would socially transfer their acquired predator knowledge to their naïve offspring, which in turn would exhibit antipredator behaviour. While fry from both treatment groups did not show a difference in shoal formation, there is some evidence to suggest a trend in the experimental group regarding parental ability to transfer information to offspring and influence shoal behaviour. When tested individually, experimental fry decreased their activity more than control fry in the presence of the predator odour. This study provides evidence of a unique form of predator learning between parents and offspring, suggesting that biparental care may also serve to provide offspring with information about the habitat into which they are born.

The hawk–dove game in a sexually reproducing species explains a colourful polymorphism of an endangered bird

The hawk–dove game famously introduced strategic game theory thinking into biology and forms the basis of arguments for limited aggression in animal populations. However, aggressive ‘hawks’ and peaceful ‘doves’, with strategies inherited in a discrete manner, have never been documented in a real animal population. Thus, the applicability of game-theoretic arguments to real populations might be contested. Here, we show that the head-colour polymorphism of red and black Gouldian finches ( Erythrura gouldiae ) provides a real-life example. The aggressive red morph is behaviourally dominant and successfully invades black populations, but when red ‘hawks’ become too common, their fitness is severely compromised (via decreased parental ability). We also investigate the effects of real-life deviations, particularly sexual reproduction, from the simple original game, which assumed asexual reproduction. A protected polymorphism requires mate choice to be sufficiently assortative. Assortative mating is adaptive for individuals because of genetic incompatibilities affecting hybrid offspring fitness, but by allowing red ‘hawks’ to persist, it also leads to significantly reduced population sizes. Because reductions in male contributions to parental care are generally known to lead to lower population productivity in birds, we expect zero-sum competition to often have wide ranging population consequences.

What Parents Think about Giving Nonnutritive Sweeteners to Their Children: A Pilot Study

Objective. To evaluate parental attitudes toward providing foods and beverages with nonnutritive sweeteners (NNS) to their children and to explore parental ability to recognize NNS in packaged foods and beverages. Methods. 120 parents of children ≥ 1 and ≤18 years of age completed brief questionnaires upon entering or exiting a grocery store. Parental attitudes toward NNS were assessed using an interviewer-assisted survey. Parental selection of packaged food and beverages (with and without NNS) was evaluated during a shopping simulation activity. Parental ability to identify products with NNS was tested with a NNS recognition test. Results. Most parents (72%) disagreed with the statement “NNS are safe for my child to consume.” This was not reflected during the shopping simulation activity because about one-quarter of items selected by parents contained NNS. Parents correctly identified only 23% of NNS-containing items presented as foods or beverages which were sweetened with NNS. Conclusions. The negative parental attitudes toward providing NNS to their children raise the question whether parents are willing to replace added sugars with NNS in an effort to reduce their child’s calorie intake. Our findings also suggest that food labeling should be revised in order for consumers to more easily identify NNS in foods and beverages.

Testing for Racial Differences in the Mental Ability of Young Children

Using a new nationally representative dataset, we find minor differences in test outcomes between black and white infants that disappear with a limited set of controls. However, relative to whites, all other races lose substantial ground by age two. Combining our estimates with results in prior literature, we show that a simple model with assortative mating fits our data well, implying that differences in children's environments between racial groups can fully explain gaps in intelligence. If parental ability influences a child's test scores both genetically and through environment, then our findings are less informative and can be reconciled with a wide range of racial differences in inherited intelligence.