Nanny state
Birth order and educational attainment: Evidence from fully adopted sibling groups
Kieron Barclay
Intelligence, January–February 2015, Pages 109–122
Abstract:
This study uses data on fully adopted sibling groups to test whether the explanation for the consistently observed negative effects of birth order are physiological or social in origin. Swedish administrative register data is used to construct full sibling data for cohorts born 1960–1982. Using a within-family comparison approach, I compare adopted siblings of different adopted birth order to one another to see whether birth order amongst adopted children (N = 6968) is associated with educational attainment by age 30, and the likelihood of having entered tertiary education by age 30. These same within-family comparison analyses are also performed on siblings in fully biologically related sibling groups (N = 1,588,401). I find that there is a negative relationship between adopted birth order and both educational attainment and the likelihood of entering tertiary education in fully adopted sibling sets. These findings strongly suggest that differences in educational attainment by birth order are driven by intrafamily social dynamics. I also conduct additional analyses in fully adopted sibling groups where age order and adoption order are reversed to test whether there is evidence for tutoring by siblings. These results do not indicate clear support for any tutoring effect.
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Amanda Hahn et al.
Hormones and Behavior, January 2015, Pages 54–59
Abstract:
“Baby schema” refers to infant characteristics, such as facial cues, that positively influence cuteness perceptions and trigger caregiving and protective behaviors in adults. Current models of hormonal regulation of parenting behaviors address how hormones may modulate protective behaviors and nurturance, but not how hormones may modulate responses to infant cuteness. To explore this issue, we investigated possible relationships between the reward value of infant facial cuteness and within-woman changes in testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone levels. Multilevel modeling of these data showed that infant cuteness was more rewarding when women’s salivary testosterone levels were high. Moreover, this within-woman effect of testosterone was independent of the possible effects of estradiol and progesterone and was not simply a consequence of changes in women’s cuteness perceptions. These results suggest that testosterone may modulate differential responses to infant facial cuteness, potentially revealing a new route through which testosterone shapes selective allocation of parental resources.
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Predicting Sibling Investment by Perceived Sibling Resemblance
Sigal Tifferet et al.
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using resemblance cues, people can identify highly related kin and treat them preferentially over less related or unrelated individuals, all else being equal. However, differences in degrees of resemblance can occur even within particular kin categories, such as siblings. We hypothesized that the level of perceived resemblance between siblings will predict sibling investment. Eighty Israeli students who had at least 2 full siblings filled out questionnaires regarding the younger sibling who was nearest to them in age. We found that sibling resemblance was positively associated with sibling investment, with emotional closeness serving as a mediator for the relationship between resemblance and investment. The results support the hypothesis that perceived resemblance to a younger sibling predicts investment in that sibling.
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Kevin Beaver et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The role of parenting in the development of criminal behavior has been the source of a vast amount of research, with the majority of studies detecting statistically significant associations between dimensions of parenting and measures of criminal involvement. An emerging group of scholars, however, has drawn attention to the methodological limitations—mainly genetic confounding—of the parental socialization literature. The current study addressed this limitation by analyzing a sample of adoptees to assess the association between 8 parenting measures and 4 criminal justice outcome measures. The results revealed very little evidence of parental socialization effects on criminal behavior before controlling for genetic confounding and no evidence of parental socialization effects on criminal involvement after controlling for genetic confounding.
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Mark Feinberg et al.
Journal of Family Psychology, December 2014, Pages 821-831
Abstract:
This study examines long-term effects of a transition to parenthood program, Family Foundations, designed to enhance child outcomes through a strategic focus on supporting the coparenting relationship. Roughly 5 to 7 years after baseline (pregnancy), parent and teacher reports of internalizing and externalizing problems and school adjustment were collected by mail for 98 children born to couples enrolled in the randomized trial. Teachers reported significantly lower levels of internalizing problems among children in the intervention group compared with children in the control group and, consistent with prior findings at age 3, lower levels of externalizing problems for boys in the intervention group. Baseline level of observed couple negative communication moderated intervention effects for parent and teacher report of child adjustment and teacher report of school adjustment and adaptation. Effect sizes ranged from 0.40 to 0.98. Results indicate that relatively brief preventive programs for couples at the transition to parenthood have the capacity to promote long-term positive benefits for children’s adjustment. Although we attended to missing data issues in several ways, high levels of attrition in this long-term follow-up study is a cause for caution.
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Children’s Academic Achievement and Foster Care
Lawrence Berger et al.
Pediatrics, January 2015, Pages e109-e116
Background and objectives: Poor school outcomes for children in out-of-home placement (OHP) raise concerns about the adequacy of child welfare and educational policy for this vulnerable population. We analyzed the relation between OHP and academic achievement, focusing on reading and math achievement in grades 3 through 8.
Methods: Linked administrative data were used for our analytic sample comprising 529 597 child-year observations for 222 049 children who experienced OHP or were in a comparison group. Three models were estimated: a pooled ordinary least squares regression that considered placement status and test scores net of the full set of control variables; an identical model that added the previous year’s test scores as an additional control; and a final model that included child-specific fixed effects.
Results: Children in OHP settings had achievement test scores at least 0.6 SD below average. However, we found similar deficits across children with past, current, and future exposure to OHP and, in our preferred model, OHP (past, current, or future placement) had no statistically discernible relation with either reading or math achievement.
Conclusions: OHP by itself is not significantly related to school achievement; however, evidence reveals consistently low average math and reading achievement among children involved with Child Protective Services.
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Community characteristics, conservative ideology, and child abuse rates
Rebekah Breyer & David MacPhee
Child Abuse & Neglect, forthcoming
Abstract:
Authoritarian ideology, including religious conservativism, endorses obedience to authority and physical punishment of children. Although this association has been studied at the level of the family, little research has been conducted on whether conservativism in the broader community context correlates with the mistreatment of children. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this relation between conservativism and physical punishment of children extends to child abuse rates at the community level. Predictors included county-level religious and political conservativism and demographic variables. Political and religious conservativism covaried, and both were inversely related to child abuse rates. Population density was strongly related to rates of maltreatment and with demographic factors controlled, religious conservativism but not political conservativism continued to predict rates of child abuse. The results suggest that community factors related to social disorganization may be more important than religious or political affiliation in putting children at risk for maltreatment.
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Randy McCarthy et al.
Psychology of Violence, January 2015, Pages 26-34
Objective: To conduct the first population-based study comparing child maltreatment rates perpetrated by civilian parents in military families before, during, and after combat-related deployments.
Method: The sample included children in United States Air Force families who experienced at least 1 child maltreatment incident perpetrated by their civilian parent and whose active-duty parent experienced at least 1 combat-related deployment between October 1, 2001, and October 31, 2008.
Results: During the study period, 2,442 children were involved in 2,879 substantiated child maltreatment incidents perpetrated by the civilian parent. Rates of child maltreatment by civilian parents increased 52% during deployments compared with before the active-duty parent’s first deployment. The overall postdeployment child maltreatment rate was lower than the predeployment and during-deployment maltreatment rates. The large increase in child maltreatment by the civilian parent during deployment compared with predeployment was largely driven by a 124% increase in child neglect.
Conclusion: During combat-related deployments, children are at heightened risk of child neglect perpetrated by their civilian parent. These results suggest a need for focused maltreatment prevention/intervention efforts during this time of increased risk of children being neglected by their civilian parent.
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Public Child Care and Mothers’ Labor Supply — Evidence from Two Quasi-Experiments
Stefan Bauernschuster & Martin Schlotter
Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Public child care is expected to assist families in reconciling work with family life. Yet, empirical evidence for the relevance of public child care to maternal employment is inconclusive. We exploit the introduction of a legal claim to a place in kindergarten in Germany, which was contingent on day-of-birth cut-off dates and resulted in a marked increase in kindergarten attendance of three-year olds in the following years. Instrumental variable and difference-in-differences estimations on two individual-level data sets yield positive effects of public child care on maternal employment. A set of placebo treatment tests corroborate the validity of our identification strategies.
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Kent Nilsson et al.
International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, forthcoming
Background: Previous evidence of gene-by-environment interactions associated with emotional and behavioral disorders is contradictory. Differences in findings may result from variation in valence and dose of the environmental factor, and/or failure to take account of gene-by-gene interactions. The present study investigated interactions between the brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene (BDNF Val66Met), the serotonin transporter gene linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR), the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA-uVNTR) polymorphisms, family conflict, sexual abuse, the quality of the child–parent relationship, and teenage delinquency.
Methods: In 2006, as part of the Survey of Adolescent Life in Västmanland, Sweden, 1337 high-school students, aged 17–18 years, anonymously completed questionnaires and provided saliva samples for DNA analyses.
Results: Teenage delinquency was associated with two-, three-, and four-way interactions of each of the genotypes and the three environmental factors. Significant four-way interactions were found for BDNF Val66Met×5-HTTLPR×MAOA-uVNTR×family conflicts, and for BDNF Val66Met×5-HTTLPR×MAOA-uVNTR×sexual abuse. Further, the two genotype combinations that differed the most in expression levels (BDNF Val66Met Val, 5-HTTLPR LL, MAOA-uVNTR LL (girls) and L (boys) vs BDNF Val66Met Val/Met, 5-HTTLPR S/LS, MAOA-uVNTR S/SS/LS) in interaction with family conflict and sexual abuse were associated with the highest delinquency scores. The genetic variants previously shown to confer vulnerability for delinquency (BDNF Val66Met Val/Met×5-HTTLPR S×MAOA-uVNTR S) were associated with the lowest delinquency scores in interaction with a positive child–parent relationship.
Conclusions: Functional variants of the MAOA-uVNTR, 5-HTTLPR, and BDNF Val66Met, either alone or in interaction with each other, may be best conceptualized as modifying sensitivity to environmental factors that confer either risk or protection for teenage delinquency.
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Material Parenting: How the Use of Goods in Parenting Fosters Materialism in the Next Generation
Marsha Richins & Lan Nguyen Chaplin
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research introduces the concept of material parenting, in which parents use material goods to express their love or to shape children’s behavior. Despite the common use of material goods for these purposes, possible long term effects of material parenting practices have not been studied. This article addresses this oversight by examining the potential effects of material parenting on the material values of children once they’re grown. This research proposes and tests a material parenting pathway, in which warm and supportive parents provide children with material rewards that in the long run foster materialism in adulthood. An insecurity pathway to materialism, previously proposed in the literature, is also examined. Results from three survey studies provide support for both pathways. Results also suggest that material parenting may influence children’s material values by (possibly unintentionally) encouraging them to use possessions to shape and transform the self.
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Shira Offer
Sociological Forum, December 2014, Pages 916–936
Abstract:
One of the aspects unaccounted for in previous assessments of employed parents ‘distribution of time is the mental dimension of tasks and demands. This aspect, referred to as mental labor, is conceptualized as the planning, organization, and management of everyday activities. Using the experience sampling method, a unique form of time diary, and survey data from the 500 Family Study (N = 402 mothers with 16,451 signals and 291 fathers with 11,322 signals), this study examined the prevalence, context, and emotional correlates of mental labor among parents in dual-earner families. Results show that fathers reported thinking more frequently about job-related matters than mothers but these concerns did not spill over into unpaid work. By contrast, mothers’ job-related thoughts tended to spill over into unpaid work and free-time activities. When engaging in mental labor, mothers and fathers were equally likely to think about family matters, but these thoughts were only detrimental to emotional well-being in mothers. Among both mothers and fathers, paid work was relatively insulated from thoughts about family matters. Overall, findings highlight mothers’ double burden and suggest that mental labor may contribute to mothers’ emotional stress and gender inequality among dual-earner families.
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Sleep Deprivation, Low Self-Control, and Delinquency: A Test of the Strength Model of Self-Control
Ryan Meldrum, J.C. Barnes & Carter Hay
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, February 2015, Pages 465-477
Abstract:
Recent work provides evidence that sleep deprivation is positively related to delinquency. In this study, we draw on Baumeister and colleagues’ strength model of self-control to propose an explanation for this association. Specifically, we argue that low self-control is the construct that bridges the relationship between sleep deprivation and delinquency. To test the proposed model, we examine survey data drawn from a longitudinal multi-city cohort study of adolescents who were followed from birth through age 15 (N = 825; 50 % female; 82 % non-Hispanic white, 59 % two-parent nuclear family). The results from regression models using latent factors indicate: sleep deprivation is positively related to low self-control; low self-control is positively related to delinquency; and the relationship between sleep deprivation and delinquency is indirect and operates through low self-control. Impressively, these relationships emerged when accounting for potential background sources of spuriousness, including neighborhood context, depressive symptoms, parenting practices, unstructured socializing with peers, and prior delinquency. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
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J.C. Barnes & Ryan Meldrum
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, February 2015, Pages 489-506
Abstract:
Recent work provides evidence that reduced sleep duration has detrimental effects on a range of developmentally related outcomes during adolescence. Yet, the potential confounding influence of genetic and shared environmental effects has not been sufficiently addressed. This study addresses this issue by analyzing cross-sectional data from the twin sub-sample of the first wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health [N ≈ 287 MZ (monozygotic) twin pairs; 50 % male; 22 % Black; mean age = 15.75]. Associations between sleep duration (measured through two different strategies, one tapping number of hours slept at night and the other measuring weeknight bedtimes) and seven outcomes (self-control, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, body mass index, violent delinquency, non-violent delinquency, and drug use) were estimated. Consistent with prior research, associations between sleep duration and several outcomes were statistically significant when using standard social science analytic methods. Yet, when employing a methodology that accounts for genetic and shared environmental influences, some of these associations were reduced to non-significance. Still, two consistent associations remained in that participants who reported sleeping fewer hours at night (or who reported later bedtimes) exhibited lower levels of self-control and more depressive symptoms. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.
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A pilot study comparing opaque, weighted bottles with conventional, clear bottles for infant feeding
Alison Ventura & Rebecca Pollack Golen
Appetite, February 2015, Pages 178–184
Abstract:
It is hypothesized that the visual and weight cues afforded by bottle-feeding may lead mothers to overfeed in response to the amount of liquid in the bottle. The aim of the present pilot study was to test this hypothesis by comparing mothers' sensitivity and responsiveness to infant cues and infants' intakes when mothers use opaque, weighted bottles (that remove visual and weight cues) compared to conventional, clear bottles to feed their infants. We also tested the hypothesis that mothers' pressuring feeding style would moderate the effect of bottle type. Formula-feeding dyads (N = 25) visited our laboratory on two separate days. Mothers fed their infants from a clear bottle one day and an opaque, weighted bottle on the other; bottle-order was counterbalanced across the two days. Infant intake was assessed by weighing each bottle before and after the feeding. Maternal sensitivity and responsiveness to infant cues was objectively assessed using the Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale. Mothers were significantly more responsive to infant cues when they used opaque compared to clear bottles (p = .04). There was also a trend for infants to consume significantly less formula when fed from opaque compared to clear bottles (p = .08). Mothers' pressuring feeding style moderated the effect of bottle type on maternal responsiveness to infant cues (p = .02) and infant intake (p = .03). Specifically, mothers who reported higher levels of pressuring feeding were significantly more responsive to their infants' cues (p = .02) and fed their infants significantly less formula when using opaque versus clear bottles (p = .01); no differences were seen for mothers who reported lower levels of pressuring feeding. This study highlights a simple, yet effective intervention for improving the bottle-feeding practices of mothers who have pressuring feeding styles.