Research suggests that women's autonomic nervous system responses to infant cries capture processes that affect their parenting behaviors. The aim of this study was to build on prior work by testing whether pregnant women's autonomic responses to an unfamiliar infant crying also predict their infants' emerging regulation abilities. Participants…

Emphasis on continuous infant sleep overnight may be driven by parental concern of risk to child mental health outcomes. The Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study (MPEWS) examined whether infant sleep at 6 and 12 months postpartum predicts anxiety disorders at 2-4 years, and whether this is moderated by maternal depression, active physical…

There is still relatively little known about when, why, how and in what circumstances parenting interventions are effective. Support within the group context has been theorised as a key mechanism. This paper explores how pregnant women with additional health or social care needs participating in two group parenting interventions--Mellow Bumps or…

Relationships support social animals' health, but maintaining relationships is challenging. When transitioning to parenthood, new parents balance pair-bond maintenance with infant care. We studied pair-bond maintenance via affiliation in 22 adult titi monkey pairs ("Plecturocebus cupreus") for 16 months centered around their first…

This study aims to determine the effects of kangaroo care at birth on exclusively breastfeeding, infant growth and development according to attachment theory. The study is a randomized controlled trial. The sample of the study consisted of 132 pregnant women between 36 and 38 gestational weeks. Kangaroo care group received 'kangaroo care and…

Prenatal and postpartum depression are highly prevalent worldwide, and emerging evidence suggests they contribute to impairments in children's executive functions. Studies of maternal depression, however, have focused on the postpartum and postnatal periods with relatively less consideration of prenatal influences on child development. This study…

The current study addressed whether mothers' explicitly expressed and implicitly held attitudes towards infant crying (n = 71) differ with each other and how these two types of attitudes relate to mothers' depressive symptoms during the transition to parenthood. Neither mothers' explicit nor implicit attitudes towards infant crying predicted…

Parent-adolescent communication about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues is associated with healthy sexual outcomes in adolescents. The increasing evasion of this discourse at the home front in sub-Saharan Africa is receiving greater academic and public health attention. In many Nigerian households, adolescents lack access to informative…

The protective effects of talk with parents about sex in delaying sex and reducing young people's risky sexual behaviour may extend from adolescence to emerging adulthood. However, little is known about the content and process of this communication, or how parents and their emerging adult children perceive their conversations about sex and…

Early childbearing is associated with high maternal stress and family violence. However, the long-term effects of rapid repeat pregnancy (RRP) in young motherhood on child outcomes remain largely unknown. This study examined the pathways between maternal RRP at young ages and child psychosocial problems and emergency room visits in later years. A…

Children born to mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at increased risk of maltreatment and out-of-home care (OOHC) placement. This study examines the parent-child interaction quality and home environments of 92 New Zealand children with prenatal opioid exposure (OE) and 106 non-opioid-exposed (NE) children. Experiences for those in maternal…

Research linking postpartum depression (PPD) with negative child outcomes has predominantly examined PPD at six weeks postpartum or later, and has not controlled for depression during pregnancy. The present study examined associations between PPD at three weeks postpartum and temperament in 6-month-old infants in a sample of women who were not…

Parent-child communication concerning sexual and reproductive health (SRH) has significant potential to reduce children's risky sexual behaviour. Despite these benefits, few parents communicate with their children about SRH issues in Uganda. Using multi-stage stratified sampling in a cross-sectional survey, we estimated the prevalence and…

Children of teen mothers have worse academic, labor market, and behavioral outcomes in the United States, but it is not clear whether these poor outcomes are caused by having a young mother or driven by selection into teen motherhood. Understanding the reasoning behind poor child outcomes is important for designing effective policies to improve…

School re-entry for pregnant girls and young mothers is increasingly recognized by African governments as a critical measure to improve the education of marginalized adolescents and mitigate school pushout. In Uganda, the high rate of teenage pregnancy, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompted the government to approve "Revised…