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Biomedical subjects

J Belsky

Publications and source records attributed to J Belsky.

53 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Marital and parent-child relationships in family of origin and marital change following the birth of a baby: a retrospective analysis.

In order to explore the relationship between recollected experiences in one's family of origin and changes in marriage following the birth and rearing of a new baby, data collected as part of a larger and more extensive study of infant and family development were analyzed. Multiple regression analyses revealed that retrospective reports of how one was reared by parents and of how parents got along as husband and wife in one's family of origin reliably predicted changes in marriage from the last trimester of pregnancy through the time the baby was 9 months of age. Most significantly, results indicated that husband-wife differences in evaluations of marital adjustment increased over time when individuals recalled being reared in a cold-rejecting as opposed to warm-supportive manner, especially when individuals also recalled their own parents as not having an especially harmonious marital relationship. These findings are discussed in terms of potential processes by which experiences in one's family of origin may affect the way couples adjust to the birth and rearing of a new baby.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Experimenting with the family in the newborn period.

Families randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups that varied across 2 orthogonal dimensions were compared at 1, 3, and 9 months to examine the effects of a neonatal intervention. In half of the families mothers and fathers were the target of intervention, and in the remaining half of the families mother was the sole target of intervention. The intervention itself consisted of passive or active exposure to the Brazelton Neonatal Behavior Assessment; half of the parents in each target-of-intervention group (mother only, mother and father) actively elicited responses from their newborn under the direction of a facilitator (active exposure) and the other half of the parents listened to a detailed verbal description of their infant's performance on the exam. Assessments of mother-infant interaction in the dyad and mother-infant, father-infant, and husband-wife interaction in the triad revealed no effects of the experimental intervention across groups. Discussion emphasizes the need to be cautious about the effectiveness of minor interventions and the need to be critical about past reports of success.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Photon absorptiometry for non-invasive measurement of bone mineral content.

Bone mineral content of the distal radius was determined in 106 patients by single photon absorptiometry using iodine-125 monochromatic source. The technique provided a reliable means to assess the degree of mineral loss in conditions such as osteoporosis, renal osteodystrophy in patients on chronic maintenance dialysis, subjects on long-term steroid therapy, and those with diabetes mellitus. It is more sensitive than conventional radiography and completely noninvasive compared to bone biopsy. It is suggested that photon absorptiometry is a simple, sensitive, and reliable technique for assessment and follow-up of the bone mineral content in a host of disorders associated with bone demineralization.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The determinants of parenting: a process model.

This essay is based on the assumption that a long-neglected topic of socialization, the determinants of individual differences in parental functioning, is illuminated by research on the etiology of child maltreatment. Three domains of determinants are identified (personal psychological resources of parents, characteristics of the child, and contextual sources of stress and support), and a process model of competent parental functioning is offered on the basis of the analysis. The model presumes that parental functioning is multiply determined, that sources of contextual stress and support can directly affect parenting or indirectly affect parenting by first influencing individual psychological well-being, that personality influences contextual support/stress, which feeds back to shape parenting, and that, in order of importance, the personal psychological resources of the parent are more effective in buffering the parent-child relation from stress than are contextual sources of support, which are themselves more effective than characteristics of the child.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, I: Stability and change in mother-infant and father-infant interaction in a family setting at one, three, and nine months.

In order to further understanding of the development of the father-infant relationship, patterns of mothering and fathering in 72 families were observed longitudinally (at 1, 3, and 9 months) and from the perspective of the family system. Analyses of variance revealed comparable developmental change in maternal and paternal behaviors, but striking differences between parents, with mothers engaging in far more interaction at all ages studied. Analyses of individual differences in maternal and paternal behavior revealed consistent stability over time, especially from 3 to 9 months, thereby highlighting points of similarity in mothering and fathering. Within-age correlational analyses revealed consistent positive associations between measures of father-infant and husband-wife interaction, yet little relationship between measures of mother-infant and spousal interaction. These findings and others are discussed in terms of similarities and differences in mothering and fathering.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, II: The development of reciprocal interaction in the mother-infant dyad.

In order to assess stability and change in mother-infant interaction, 74 mother-infant dyads were observed at home under naturalistic conditions when infants were 1, 3, and 9 months. Both conceptually and empirically guided data-reduction procedures indicated that 4 summary constructs underlie 15 behavioral categories coded: reciprocal interaction, noninvolvement, distress, and basic care. Mean levels of reciprocal interaction remained unchanged over time, with individual differences being stable. Mean levels of noninvolvement increased from 1 to 3 months only, and remained stable across all time periods, while mean levels of distress and basic care declined linearly across the 9-month periods, with individual dyads displaying little stability. A final analysis assessed stability and change in the 9 component variables comprising the reciprocal interaction construct. Significant change was discerned with respect to several of these components, as well as a good deal of instability. These findings led to the conclusion that, in the face of sameness in mother-infant interaction across the first 9 months, there is also much change.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, III: The origins of individual differences in infant-mother attachment: maternal and infant contributions.

In order to test 4 specific hypotheses regarding the interactional histories associated with variation in quality of infant-mother attachment, data gathered during naturalistic home observations at 1, 3, and 9 months on 60 babies seen in the Ainsworth and Wittig strange situation were examined. Planned comparisons revealed, as predicted, that securely attached infants had experienced intermediate levels of reciprocal interaction and maternal stimulation, considered to be reflective of sensitive care, and that resistant babies had experienced less responsive care than securely attached infants. No support was provided for the hypothesis that avoidant babies had experienced less physical contact with mothers than securely attached infants. Insecurely attached infants were observed to cry significantly more than securely attached infants at 3 and 9 months. A cross-lag panel analysis, designed to assess longitudinal processes of influence, revealed that fussiness was caused by mothering and did not serve to influence mothering. These results are discussed in terms of mothers' relatively greater influence in determining individual differences in attachment, with overstimulation leading to avoidance, understimulation leading to resistance, and intermediate levels of stimulation leading to security.

Child Behavior↗
PubMed1980

Mother-infant interaction at home and in the laboratory: a comparative study.

On the basis of recent questioning of the generalizability of laboratory data, mother-infant interaction was examined at home and in the laboratory to determine if behavior observed under free-play conditions in the laboratory is representative of that observed at home under naturalistic conditions--as it is commonly assumed to be. Twenty-four 12-month-olds and their mothers were observed for 30 minutes on two occasions a week apart. Half of the mother-infant pairs were seen twice at home under naturalistic conditions or twice in the laboratory in a free-play situation. The remaining 12 pairs were seen once in each location (order counterbalanced). General level of maternal functioning, but not of infant functioning, was greatly affected by context; mothers attended to, talked to, responded to, and stimulated their children more frequently in the lab than at home. In addition, individual differences in maternal behavior were found to be more stable when mothers were seen twice in the same context (home or lab) than when seen once in each locale. These results led to the conclusion that cross-contextual generalizations, especially from the lab to the field, are unwarranted unless across-setting consistently can be empirically documented.

Female↗
PubMed1980

Maternal stimulation and infant exploratory competence: cross-sectional, correlational, and experimental analyses.

Research on maternal influence on infant development is criticized on the basis of its limited ability to make strong causal claims. 2 observational studies are then presented; 1 details, cross-sectionally, developmental changes in strategies of maternal stimulation and infant exploration and the interrelationship of these domains of parent and child behavior; the other tests, experimentally, the hypothesis that maternal stimulation fosters infant exploratory competence. Results of the first study reveal: (1) a linear increase in mother's verbal attention-focusing behavior and a curvilinear trend in physical attention-focusing strategies between 9 and 18 months; (2) linear increases in a variety of measures of infant exploration; and (3) positive associations between naturalistically observed maternal stimulation and infant exploratory competence. The experimental study demonstrates that infant exploratory skill, as measured both naturalistically and during a semistructured, free-play assessment, is positively influenced by the enhancement of maternal stimulation. These latter results are discussed in terms of infant stimulation programs.

Exploratory Behavior↗
PubMed1975

Epidemiologic studies of coronary heart disease and stroke in Japanese men living in Japan, Hawaii and California: prevalence of coronary and hypertensive heart disease and associated risk factors.

A study of coronary heart disease (CHD) among Japanese migrants compared with Japanese living in Japan provided the opportunity to study factors possibly responsible for the high rates of CHD in America as compared with Japan. Comparable methods were employed in examining 11,900 men of Japanese ancestry aged 45--69 living in Japan, Hawaii and California. The age-adjusted prevalence rates for definite CHD as determined by ECG were: Japan 5.3, Hawaii 5.2 and California 10.8/1000. For definite plus possible CHD the rates were 25.4, 34.7 and 44.6. The prevalence of angina pectoris and pain of possible myocardial infarction, determined by questionnaire, showed a similar gradient. Elevated serum cholesterol showed a Japan-Hawaii-California gradient, but the prevalence of hypertension in Japan was intermediate between the prevalence in Hawaii and the higher prevalence in California. The three geographic locations were compared as to prevalence of CHD at comparable levels of blood pressure and cholesterol. At each blood pressure level and at each cholesterol level, the greater prevalence of CHD in California persisted. These facts, plus the near universality of smoking in Japan, suggest that conventional risk factors only partly explain the observed gradient in CHD.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The similarity of siblings' attachments to their mother.

Do siblings develop similar attachment relationships with their mother? Attachment theory suggests that brothers and sisters growing up in the same family are likely to relate in similar ways to their parents, at least when parental attachment representations and interactive styles remain stable across time. In the current study, sibling attachment data from three research groups (from Pennsylvania State University, Leiden University, and the University of Western Ontario) have been pooled to assemble a sufficiently large sample of observations (N = 138 sibling pairs) for a detailed comparison of sibling attachment relationships. Spacing between the births, differences in maternal sensitivity, and gender of siblings were examined as possible sources of concordance of nonconcordance. Attachment security (including disorganized attachment) of each sibling was assessed with the Strange Situation procedure between 12 and 14 months after birth. Maternal sensitivity was observed with the same rating scale in a laboratory play session in one of the studies and in home observations in the others. Sibling relationships were found to be significantly concordant when classified as secure/nonsecure (62% concordance, p < .01, 1-tailed, intraclass correlation = .23) but not when further subcategorized. Maternal insensitivity to both siblings (shared environment) was associated with concordance of sibling nonsecurity. Siblings of the same gender were more likely to form concordant relationships with their mother (68%; p < .01, 1-tailed, intraclass correlation = .37) than those of opposite gender. Same-sex sibling concordance was comparable to the concordance found for monozygotic twins in earlier studies. Genetic factors may, therefore, play a relatively small role in the development of attachment.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Testing a core emotion-regulation prediction: does early attentional persistence moderate the effect of infant negative emotionality on later development?

To test the hypothesis that early attentional persistence will moderate the effect of infant negative emotionality on social competence, problem behavior, and school readiness at age 3, data collected as part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care were subject to structural equation modeling analyses (N = 1,038). Consistent with Eisenberg et al.'s data on older children, high levels of negative emotionality were associated with low levels of social competence only when attentional persistence was poor. No such moderating effects of attentional persistence emerged in the case of behavior problems. And in the case of school readiness, findings indicated that high levels of negative emotionality predicted high levels of school readiness when attentional persistence was high, a result opposite to that found with respect to the prediction of social competence.

Affect↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The Yale Affiliated Hospital Program in Internal Medicine. I. Organization, goals and plans.

In July, 1975, the Departments of Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and eight community hospitals in southern and western Connecticut formed the Yale Affiliated Hospital Program (YAHP) in Internal Medicine. The YAHP provides a planned and focused program of continuing education for medical staff and housestaff at the affiliated hospitals. Six formats for the over 1,000 rounds, lectures, and conferences given annually are used. The members of the YAHP also cooperate in housestaff and faculty recruiting, evaluation of quality of care and evaluation of the process of continuing medical education itself. This report summarizes the organization, goals and future plans of the YAHP.

Connecticut↗