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W B Miller

Publications and source records attributed to W B Miller.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Childbearing motivation and its measurement.

This paper conceptualises the motive force behind human childbearing as originating in two broad traits which have biological bases, are shaped by experiences during early life and are expressed through their effect on desires and intentions. An instrument for measuring childbearing motivation, the Childbearing Questionnaire (CBQ), is presented. Using a sample of 401 married couples two main scales, nine subscales, and several independent items are described. Evidence for the reliability and validity of this instrument is presented. The versatility of the CBQ as a research instrument and the usefulness of the conceptualisation from which it is derived as a way of integrating social, behavioural, and biological science approaches to childbearing motivation are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Children from unwanted pregnancies in Prague, Czech Republic revisited at age thirty.

The results of the fourth wave of the Prague Study of subjects born of unwanted pregnancies (UP) are reported. Of these young adults, 190 were examined at age 30 together with pair-matched control subjects born of accepted pregnancies (AP). Siblings of both UP and AP subjects were also examined. As in the previous data waves the UP subjects manifest less favorable psychosocial development on average than their AP controls, although the differences have narrowed. In some respects the siblings of the UP subjects share the latter's less favorable characteristics. However, there is a gender specific nonshared late effect of unwanted pregnancy: the UP females are more frequently emotionally disturbed than their AP female controls, whereas no such difference occurs between the female siblings of the UP and AP subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

The effect of a self-management training package on the transfer of aggression control procedures in the absence of supervision.

An aggression replacement and self-management training package reduced the frequency of aggressive behavior among four junior high adolescents identified as seriously emotionally disturbed (SED). During baseline sessions, the students were covertly filmed as they stood unsupervised in front of the school cafeteria. The four subjects engaged in aggressive behavior during 50% of the filmed intervals. These episodes involved provocation by other students, self-initiated provocation, or continuing interaction between students once an aggressive episode had begun. Treatment procedures included instruction, modeling, and role playing of aggression replacement skills. Self-management training included self-assessment, self-recording, and self-reinforcement. Following an 8-week period, subjects demonstrated substantial improvement in prosocial skills without supervision. During reversal-to-baseline conditions, aggressive behavior increased; however, reinstating treatment conditions brought a return to prosocial behavior. Outcomes suggest that aggressive replacement skills may transfer and sustain more adequately using self-management.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Childbearing motivations, desires, and intentions: a theoretical framework.

After briefly reviewing different approaches in the social and behavioral sciences to conceptualize the reasons that humans become motivated to bear children, I present a theoretical framework that incorporates many elements of these approaches. The framework is based on a four-step psychological sequence: the formation of traits, the activation of traits into desires, the translation of desires into intentions, and the implementation of intentions in the form of behavior. I use data from 401 married couples to develop regression models of the two middle steps of this sequence that indicate how childbearing motivational traits lead to childbearing desires and how the latter lead to childbearing intentions. I also develop a regression model that indicates how childbearing motivation affects an individual's perception of his or her spouse's childbearing desires.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Personality traits and developmental experiences as antecedents of childbearing motivation.

Childbearing motivation may be conceptualized as based upon psychological traits and shaped by experiences during childhood, adolescence, and early adult life. This paper explores what those traits and developmental experiences are. Two measures of childbearing motivation, one positive and the other negative, are described. Using a sample of 362 married men and 354 married women, the paper systematically examines the factors associated with these measures. In addition to a set of basic personality traits, these factors include parental characteristics, teenage experiences, and a number of variables from young adult behavior domains such as marriage, education, work, religion, and parental relationships. Stepwise multiple regression analyses lead to two final constrained, simultaneous-equation regression models. These models indicate the importance of both personality traits and diverse life-cycle experiences in the development of childbearing motivation, the differential gender distribution of predictors, and the different experiential antecedents of positive and negative motivation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Impact of tubal sterilization and vasectomy on female marital sexuality: results of a controlled longitudinal study.

To determine if female or male sterilization affects long-term female marital sexuality, we prospectively compared baseline data and 5 consecutive years of follow-up data from 152 tubal sterilization women, 106 vasectomy wives, and 83 women not planning sterilization. By follow-up year 5, no group of women expressed any change in satisfaction with their own sexual response; however, all groups showed a significant decrease across time in satisfaction with their sexual relationship, in coital desire, and in coital frequency. There were no group differences in overall net changes or in rates of change over the 5-year period. However, two short-term group differences were noted: a decrease in coital desire among women not planning sterilization between baseline and follow-up year 4, compared with increases for both sterilization groups, and an increase in coital frequency at the first follow-up year only in the tubal sterilization group. These data indicate that there are no detrimental effects and some short-term benefits of both sterilization procedures on female marital sexuality.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Tubal sterilization or vasectomy: how do married couples make the choice?

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relative importance of husband, wife, and couple factors as determinants of sterilization method choice. DESIGN: Married couples seeking sterilization interviewed before surgery and again 1 year later. SETTING: Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program subscribers seeking care at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Santa Clara, California. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred married women seeking a tubal sterilization and their husbands and 200 married men seeking a vasectomy and their wives. INTERVENTIONS: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sterilization method chosen. RESULTS: In a logistic regression model, nine predictor variables correctly classified 94.9% of 395 couples (P less than 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: The choice of a sterilization method is achieved primarily through processes that involve both spouses. The motivations of both husband and wife, their mutual influence and communication, their present pattern of contraceptive use, and what they know about the satisfactions or dissatisfactions of other people who have had sterilizations are all factors that should be taken into account when the clinician helps a patient make the method-choice decision.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed1991

The pre- and poststerilization predictors of poststerilization regret in husbands and wives.

Husbands and wives from 141 tubal sterilization couples and 162 vasectomy couples were interviewed just prior to sterilization and then again 1 and 2 years later. We conducted linear regression analyses to determine the pre- and poststerilization predictors of poststerilization regret in each of the four gender x method groups (tubal husbands, tubal wives, vasectomy husbands, vasectomy wives). We confirmed a number of hypotheses based on the research literature and our own earlier work. Both individual and couple factors contributed to the development of regret, as did both pre- and poststerilization factors. An important finding was the degree to which regret among the nonsterilized respondents (tubal husbands, vasectomy wives) was affected by pre- and poststerilization interaction with their spouses.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Menstrual pattern change 1 year after sterilization: results of a controlled, prospective study.

To determine if female sterilization is associated with adverse menstrual change, we compared prospectively collected menstrual data from women who underwent sterilization via bipolar cauterization, banding, and Pomeroy ligation with data from women whose husbands obtained a vasectomy and from women who were not planning sterilization. At first-year follow-up, sterilization via banding with Falope rings was not associated with adverse change. After excluding initially abnormal cases: (1) cauterization women were bleeding more heavily than all other groups excepting Pomeroy; (2) cauterization and Pomeroy women experienced more dysmenorrhea than women not planning sterilization; and (3) more cauterization and Pomeroy women (collapsed samples) developed abnormal length cycles than did the two control groups. There were no group differences regarding development of beneficial/neutral change (e.g., decreased dysmenorrhea). However, cauterization and Pomeroy groups experienced a significantly higher average number of adverse changes than did the other groups and were at significantly greater risk of developing one or more adverse changes than were women not planning sterilization. The only pattern of association among adverse menstrual changes occurred significantly more often in the cauterization and next in the Pomeroy groups.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Two treatment approaches for missing or peg-shaped maxillary lateral incisors: a case study on identical twins.

Patients with missing or malformed maxillary lateral incisors can be successfully treated by either replacing or restoring the lateral incisor, or by positioning and reshaping the canine to simulate the lateral incisor. Identical twins were treated, one by restoring "peg laterals" to normal contours and the other by repositioning and recontouring the canines to simulate missing lateral incisors. Results of treatment would tend to indicate that considerations other than changes in facial esthetics should determine the treatment of choice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Married women's dissatisfaction with tubal sterilization and vasectomy at first-year follow-up: effects of perceived spousal dominance.

Examination of first-year follow-up data obtained from 234 tubal ligation women and 154 vasectomy wives indicated a very low incidence of actual regret in both groups. However, use of a broader measure of satisfaction/dissatisfaction indicated that tubal ligation women had significantly more positive feelings about the sterilization decision than did vasectomy wives. Results of a series of multivariate statistical analyses demonstrated that group differences in satisfaction were related to (1) the disproportionate prevalence of perceived male control (particularly extensive control) over reproductive decisions among vasectomy wives and the negative effect it had upon subjects in both groups and (2) the disproportionate prevalence of female control over reproductive decision-making among tubal ligation women and the positive effect it had among subjects in this group. Study results point to the importance of couple counseling and exercising control over one's own body.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Factors associated with married women's selection of tubal sterilization and vasectomy.

Multivariate analyses of data from 248 married women scheduled for tubal sterilization and 165 wives of men scheduled for vasectomy indicated that male and female sterilization methods were selected for different reasons and under different circumstances. More specifically, the woman who underwent tubal sterilization was more likely to have perceived that she had greater influence than her husband over the sterilization decision, to have had cesarean section or vaginal delivery in association with sterilization, to have chosen tubal ligation because her spouse refused to undergo the alternative procedure or because it was convenient to combine it with delivery or other surgery, and to have had a spouse who was unwilling to be sterilized because of possible side effects associated with vasectomy. The woman whose husband underwent vasectomy was more likely to have been very fearful of surgery in general or especially fearful of reproductive surgery, to have known many men who already had had a vasectomy, to have perceived that her husband was more strongly motivated than herself to terminate childbearing, to have had a spouse who participated in birth control, and to have chosen vasectomy because it was easier or less expensive or because her physician advised against tubal sterilization.

Adult↗