Increasing paternal responsibility.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Child Welfare↗
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Results for “Paternal Behavior”
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Male adolescents involved in pregnancy: associated health risk and problem behaviors.
OBJECTIVE: Little is known about male high school students who have been involved in a pregnancy. This study was undertaken to determine whether male involvement with a pregnancy during adolescence is associated with other risk and problem behaviors. METHODS: The 1993 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey was conducted on a random sample of 3054 9th- through 12th-grade students. The use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, early and multiple sexual experiences, fighting resulting in injury, and demographic variables were compared between sexually active young men who reported being involved in pregnancy (n = 82) and their counterparts who reported not ever causing a pregnancy (n = 537). Associations were measured using chi 2 analyses and Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance. Stepwise logistic regression was used to further analyze those variables significantly associated with involvement with a pregnancy. RESULTS: Based on logistic regression, older age and earlier ages of onset of cocaine use, initial sexual intercourse, and regular use of cigarettes were associated with being involved with a pregnancy. An increased lifetime frequency of cocaine use, lifetime frequency of alcohol use, and an increased number of lifetime sexual partners were also associated with having caused a pregnancy. Those who reported involvement with a pregnancy reported a higher frequency of being injured in a fight during the past year, drinking while driving, and having multiple sexual partners during the previous 30 days than those who had not gotten someone pregnant. CONCLUSIONS: A history of being involved with a pregnancy clustered with other health risk and problem behaviors to form a "risk behavior syndrome." These findings suggest that when risk behaviors are encountered during the routine comprehensive screening of male adolescents, strategies for pregnancy prevention among young men should also be emphasized.
Adolescent↗
The family origins of empathic concern: a 26-year longitudinal study.
This study examined whether adult empathic concern was associated with parent behavior in early childhood. Subjects were drawn from a longitudinal sample first investigated by Sears, Maccoby, and Levin (1957). At age 31, 75 subjects completed the Adjective Checklist (Gough & Heilbrun, 1965, 1983), from which an index of empathic concern was derived. Scores on this index were regressed on 11 parenting dimensions derived from maternal interviews when the subjects were 5 years old. The results revealed a significant multiple R indicating that, taken together, the parenting dimensions predicted the level of empathic concern at age 31. Adult levels of empathic concern were most strongly related to the following parenting dimensions: paternal involvement in child care, maternal tolerance of dependent behavior, maternal inhibition of child's aggression, and maternal satisfaction with the role of mother.
Adult↗
Gender-related pathways for behavior problems in the offspring of alcoholic fathers.
The objective of the present study was to examine gender differences in the influence of paternal alcoholism on children's social-emotional development and to determine whether paternal alcoholism is associated with a greater number of externalizing symptoms in the male offspring. From the Mannheim Study of Risk Children, an ongoing longitudinal study of a high-risk population, the developmental data of 219 children [193 (95 boys and 98 girls) of non-alcoholic fathers, non-COAs, and 26 (14 boys, 12 girls) of alcoholic fathers, COAs] were analyzed from birth to the age of 11 years. Paternal alcoholism was defined according to the ICD-10 categories of alcohol dependence and harmful use. Socio-demographic data, cognitive development, number and severity of behavior problems, and gender-related differences in the rates of externalizing and internalizing symptoms were assessed using standardized instruments (IQ tests, Child Behavior Checklist questionnaire and diagnostic interviews). The general linear model analysis revealed a significant overall effect of paternal alcoholism on the number of child psychiatric problems (F = 21.872, d.f. = 1.217, P < 0.001). Beginning at age 2, significantly higher numbers of externalizing symptoms were observed among COAs. In female COAs, a pattern similar to that of the male COAs emerged, with the predominance of delinquent and aggressive behavior. Unlike male COAs, females showed an increase of internalizing symptoms up to age 11 years. Of these, somatic complaints revealed the strongest discriminating effect in 11-year-old females. Children of alcoholic fathers are at high risk for psychopathology. Gender-related differences seem to exist and may contribute to different phenotypes during development from early childhood to adolescence.
Alcoholism↗
Parenting from a distance: the effects of paternal characteristics on contact between nonresidential fathers and their children.
Changes in marital and fertility behavior have influenced the role of father for many men. We use data from the first two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to examine various sociodemographic, situational, and attitudinal characteristics that might influence the degree of contact between nonresidential fathers and their minor children. We tap two different dimensions of distance parenting and find that although several variables influence both visiting and talking on the telephone or writing letters, some factors (the presence of multiple children in a household) predict visiting only, while others (child's age and gender) predict only verbal/written contact. Similarly, some of the life-course decisions made by fathers appear to crowd out their involvement with nonresidential children, whereas other decisions reinforce their parenting behavior.
Adolescent↗
The influence of environmental and genetic factors on behavior problems and autistic symptoms in boys and girls with fragile X syndrome.
OBJECTIVE: Fragile X syndrome, caused by mutations in a single gene of the X chromosome (FMR1), is associated with neurobehavioral characteristics including social deficits with peers, social withdrawal, gaze aversion, inattention, hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, and autistic behavior. However, there is considerable variability in the behavioral and psychiatric problems among children with this condition. The purpose of this study was to measure genetic and environmental factors influencing behavior problems and autistic symptoms in children with fragile X syndrome. DESIGN: We conducted an in-home evaluation of 120 children (80 boys and 40 girls) with the fragile X full mutation and their unaffected siblings, including measurements of the FMR1 protein (FMRP), quality of the home environment, maternal and paternal psychopathology, effectiveness of educational and therapeutic services, and child behavior problems. RESULTS: Results of multiple regression analyses showed that for boys with fragile X, effectiveness of educational and therapeutic services and parental psychological problems predicted internalizing and externalizing types of problems, while the quality of the home environment predicted autistic behavior. For girls with fragile X, the results emphasized significant effects of FMRP on behavior, in particular social withdrawal and anxious/depressed behavior. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are among the first to link FMRP expression to behavior. They also emphasize the significance of home- and school-based environmental variables in the neurobehavioral phenotype and help to lay the foundation for studies designed to identify specific interventions for reducing problem behavior in children with fragile X syndrome.
Adolescent↗
Prepubertal sons of substance abusers: influences of parental and familial substance abuse on behavioral disposition, IQ, and school achievement.
In order to better understand the transgeneration liability for a substance abuse disorder, we investigated the impact of parental and familial substance abuse disorders on prepubertal boys. Specifically, the influence of each parent's substance abuse history and the effects of significant family aggregation of substance abuse disorders were tested as predictors of the child's behavioral disposition, IQ, and school achievement scores, while controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Sons of substance abusing fathers were found to have higher externalizing and internalizing problem-behavior scores, lower IQ scores, and lower school achievement scores. Internalizing and externalizing problem-behavior scores were most strongly associated with bilineal parental substance abuse, whereas SES and paternal substance abuse were most strongly associated with IQ and school performance scores. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that although paternal substance abuse has an adverse impact on the son's functioning, bilineal parental substance abuse is associated with the greatest behavioral deviancy among prepubertal males and is associated with a greater liability for substance abuse.
Achievement↗
Genetic determination of paternity and variation in male reproductive success in two populations of rhesus macaques.
The fundamental framework for uncovering factors affecting the evolution of social behavior rests upon analyses of variation in reproductive success. In species where females mate with multiple males, paternity is invisible in the absence of genetic data. We determined paternity in two populations of rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta, using both single locus and multilocus techniques. One troop, Group R, is one of four troops living on a 15 ha island (Cayo Santiago) off the coast of Puerto Rico, while the other troop, Group M, was translocated from Cayo Santiago to the Sabana Seca Field Station (Puerto Rico) in 1984. About a dozen human-derived short tandem repeat (STR) markers have been found to be polymorphic in the study of populations and provide the initial paternity determination. Final evaluation of paternity is then confirmed by multilocus DNA fingerprinting using synthetic oligonucleotide probes. Body condition, age, and dominance rank have an impact on male progeny production, while canine size does not. We suggest that nonagonistic competition in the form of sperm competition and endurance rivalry will modulate male reproductive success. A large body size among males provides them with an advantage in both sperm competition and endurance rivalry. Comparison of the two populations indicated that demographic, social, ecological, and morphological factors interact to regulate variation in reproductive success among male nonhuman primates.
Aging↗
Behavioral family intervention for children with developmental disabilities and behavioral problems.
The outcomes of a randomized clinical trial of a new behavioral family intervention, Stepping Stones Triple P, for preschoolers with developmental and behavior problems are presented. Forty-eight children with developmental disabilities participated, 27 randomly allocated to an intervention group and 20 to a wait-list control group. Parents completed measures of parenting style and stress, and independent observers assessed parent-child interactions. The intervention was associated with fewer child behavior problems reported by mothers and independent observers, improved maternal and paternal parenting style, and decreased maternal stress. All effects were maintained at 6-month follow-up.
Australia↗
Male mating success and paternity in the grey seal, Halichoerus grypus: a study using DNA fingerprinting.
Grey seals breed colonially on remote coastal sites. Within the colony, males compete aggressively for access to the females. We compare field observations of breeding behaviour with paternity, as determined by DNA fingerprinting, in the breeding colony on the island of North Rona. In 89% of cases where paternity was assigned, the father was observed near the mother during her perioestrous period, although in some cases this was discovered retrospectively. However, the most likely candidate male, judged on the basis of behavioural criteria, was shown not to be the father in 36% of cases. Overall, DNA typed males were more dominant, maintained positions amongst the females for longer, and accounted for disproportionately more paternities than untyped males. However, the reproductive success of the typed males is not as great as their behavioural domination of copulatory opportunities would suggest. Possible contributory factors which could explain this include: (i) imprecision in the estimates of copulatory opportunity due to mobility of males or topographical influences on individual behaviour; and (ii) opportunities for subordinate males to copulate with receptive females, either sneakily within the colony or in the water.
Animals↗
Recurrent adjacent-2 segregation of a familial t(14;21)(q11.2;q11.2): phenotypic comparison of two brothers and a paternal aunt inheriting the der(14).
A 14-year-old boy was referred for a genetics evaluation after high-resolution chromosome analysis showed a small amount of extra material in the proximal long arm of chromosome 21. Five years prior, his karyotype analysis was interpreted as normal with a variant chromosome 21. The patient has short palpebral fissures, strabismus, flat antihelices of the ears, long thumbs with bilaterally absent interphalangeal creases, proximal bilateral 3/4 syndactyly, small testes, hypotonia, mental retardation, and speech problems. He has significant depression and behavioral problems including hyperactivity, aggression, and impulsivity. His 8-year-old brother has more severe behavioral disturbances and depression, but less significant mental retardation. A paternal aunt has mental retardation, is unusually docile, and appears similar to our patient. Chromosome analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) whole chromosome paint of chromosome 21 showed that the patient's father carries a "cryptic" balanced translocation, 46,XY, t(14;21)(q11.2;q11.2), as does the patient's paternal grandmother. Uniparental disomy studies using seven informative polymorphic nucleotide repeat markers from 14q and 21q confirmed biparental inheritance of the number 14 and 21 chromosomes for each brother, and indicate that they and the paternal aunt, all of whom inherited the der(14), are monosomic for proximal 21q and trisomic for proximal 14q. These karyotypes arose through an adjacent-2 segregation in the father on two occasions, and from the paternal grandmother on one occasion. This family is an example of recurrent malsegregation with translocations involving the acrocentrics.
Adult↗
Phylogenetic perspectives in the evolution of parental care in ray-finned fishes.
Among major vertebrate groups, ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) collectively display a nearly unrivaled diversity of parental care activities. This fact, coupled with a growing body of phylogenetic data for Actinopterygii, makes these fishes a logical model system for analyzing the evolutionary histories of alternative parental care modes and associated reproductive behaviors. From an extensive literature review, we constructed a supertree for ray-finned fishes and used its phylogenetic topology to investigate the evolution of several key reproductive states including type of parental care (maternal, paternal, or biparental), internal versus external fertilization, internal versus external gestation, nest construction behavior, and presence versus absence of sexual dichromatism (as an indicator of sexual selection). Using a comparative phylogenetic approach, we critically evaluate several hypotheses regarding evolutionary pathways toward parental care. Results from maximum parsimony reconstructions indicate that all forms of parental care, including paternal, biparental, and maternal (both external and internal to the female reproductive tract) have arisen repeatedly and independently during ray-finned fish evolution. The most common evolutionary transitions were from external fertilization directly to paternal care and from external fertilization to maternal care via the intermediate step of internal fertilization. We also used maximum likelihood phylogenetic methods to test for statistical correlations and contingencies in the evolution of pairs of reproductive traits. Sexual dichromatism and nest construction proved to be positively correlated with the evolution of male parental care in species with external fertilization. Sexual dichromatism was also positively correlated with female-internal fertilization and gestation. No clear indication emerged that female-only care or biparental care were evolutionary outgrowths of male-only care, or that biparental care has been a common evolutionary stepping stone between paternal and maternal care. Results are discussed in the context of prior thought about the evolution of alternative parental care modes in vertebrates.
Animals↗
Overt behavior problems and serotonergic function in middle childhood among male and female offspring of alcoholic fathers.
A large body of literature indicates that the serotonergic system is involved in behavioral regulation, as evidenced by the inverse relationship between impulsive aggression and serotonergic function found in adult alcoholics and nonalcoholics. However, studies of this relationship among child and adolescent offspring of alcoholics (COAs) have not previously been done. This study examines the potentially parallel relationship between behavioral dysregulation and low serotonergic function in young COAs. The relationship is of potential interest as a phenotypic marker of biological vulnerability to aggressiveness, which itself has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for later antisocial alcoholism. The present work is part of an ongoing prospective study of the development of risk for alcohol abuse/dependence and other problematic outcomes in a sample of families subtyped by the fathers' alcoholism classification. We examined the relationship between overt behavior problems in middle childhood (mean age = 10.5 +/- 1.7 years) and whole blood serotonin (5-HT) in a subsample of the offspring (N = 32 boys and 12 girls). Using a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) index of behavioral undercontrol, we obtained results indicating that high total behavior problem (TBP) children had lower levels of whole blood 5-HT than did low-TBP children (p < 0.01). These results support the hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between whole blood serotonin levels and behavior problems in young male and female COAs. A father's alcoholism status was not significantly related to his child's 5-HT level, i.e., the child's phenotypic expression of behavioral dysregulation was more reliably connected to serotonergic function than was paternal alcoholism.
Adolescent↗
Reports of paternal alcoholism: reliability across siblings.
Recent studies of the correlates of having an alcoholic relative have relied heavily upon study participants' reports of the drinking behavior of their parents and other near relatives. These investigations have rarely attempted to validate the reports of familial alcohol problems or report on the reliability of information across other family members. The present study examined the reliability of reports of parental drinking behavior in a sample of 88 sibling pairs on versions of the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test adapted so that subjects endorsed items pertaining to their father's (F-SMAST) or mother's (M-SMAST) drinking behavior. Because of the relative infrequency of offspring reports of maternal problem drinking in this sample, only data from the F-SMAST were suited for analysis. Siblings' reports of specific paternal drinking consequences showed relatively low agreement on items requiring inference (e.g., the presence or absence of guilt) and relatively high agreement on items referring to specific behavioral acts or consequences (e.g., seeking help, being arrested, driving under the influence). Global judgments of paternal alcoholism and overall scores on the F-SMAST showed adequate levels of reliability. It is concluded that, although it is always desirable to validate offsprings' reports of relatives' drinking, such reports tend to agree with those of other siblings, and the use of these reports is reasonable when validation is impossible or unfeasible.
Adult↗
Timing between ejaculations changes paternity success.
It is believed that when two male rats copulate with a single female, the last one that ejaculates fathers significantly more pups than the first one. To determine the effects of order and elapsed time between two males copulating with the same female, albino Wistar (W) and pigmented Long-Evans (LE) male rats copulated with a W female. Paternity was confirmed by the pups' pigmentation. Three groups were made according to the elapsed time between the first male's ejaculation and the placement of the female with the second male; T0 (0-min group); T5 (5-min group); and T10 (10-min group). Male order was counterbalanced in each group. The results showed that the second male had the advantage in T0, but the first males had the advantage in T5 and T10. These data indicate that in a two-male situation, the advantage in paternity for a second male occurs only during copulations following the first few minutes of a first male's ejaculation. After 5 min, a second male has no advantage in fathering pups.
Animals↗
An imprinted PEG1/MEST antisense expressed predominantly in human testis and in mature spermatozoa.
PEG1 (or MEST) is an imprinted gene located on human chromosome 7q32 that is expressed predominantly from the paternal allele. In the mouse, Peg1/Mest is associated with embryonic growth and maternal behavior. Human PEG1 is transcribed from two promoters; the transcript from promoter P1 is derived from both parental alleles, and the transcript from P2 is exclusively from the paternal allele. We characterized the P1 and P2 transcripts in various normal and neoplastic tissues. In the normal tissues, PEG1 was transcribed from both promoters P1 and P2, whereas in six of eight neoplastic tissues, PEG1 was transcribed exclusively from promoter P1. Bisulfite sequencing demonstrated high levels of CpG methylation in the P2 region of DNA from a lung tumor. In the region between P1 and P2, we identified a novel transcript, PEG1-AS, in an antisense orientation to PEG1. PEG1-AS is a spliced transcript and was detected as a strong 2.4-kilobase band on a Northern blot. PEG1-AS and PEG1 P2-sense transcript were expressed exclusively from the paternal allele. Fragments of DNA from within the 1.5-kilobase region between PEG1-AS and the P2 exon were ligated to a pGL3 luciferase reporter vector and transfected into NCI H23 cells. This DNA exhibited strong promoter activity in both the sense and antisense directions, indicating that PEG1-AS and P2 exon share a common promoter region. Treatment of the transfected DNA fragments with CpG methylase abolished the promoter activity. Of interest, PEG1-AS was expressed predominantly in testis and in mature motile spermatozoa, indicating a possible role for this transcript in human sperm physiology and fertilization.
Alleles↗
A longitudinal study of parenting and adolescent adjustment in Chinese adolescents with economic disadvantage.
This longitudinal study examines the relationship between parenting behavior and adolescent adjustment (psychological well-being, substance abuse and delinquent behavior) in Chinese adolescents with economic disadvantage (N = 199). Results showed that parenting characteristics were concurrently and longitudinally related to measures of adolescent adjustment, particularly adolescent problem behavior. Compared with the norm based on adolescents of a community sample, poor adolescents perceived parenting characteristics to be more negative and they had relatively lower life satisfaction. Paternal parenting was perceived to be more negative than maternal parenting and parenting behavior was perceived to deteriorate over time.
Adolescent↗