Maternal and paternal filicides: a retrospective review of filicides in Finland

The purpose of this retrospective study was to illustrate the differences in maternal and paternal filicides in Finland during a 25-year period. In the sample of 200 filicides [neonaticides (n = 56), filicide-suicides (n = 75), other filicides (n = 69)], the incidence was 5.09 deaths per 100,000 live births: 59 percent of filicides were committed by mothers, 39 percent by fathers, and 2 percent by stepfathers. The mean age of the maternal victims (1.6 y) was significantly lower than that of the paternal victims (5.6 y), but no correlation between the sex of the victim and the sex of the perpetrator was found, and the number of female and male victims was equal. The sample of other filicides (n = 65) was studied more closely by forensic psychiatric examination and review of collateral files. Filicidal mothers showed mental distress and often had psychosocial stressors of marital discord and lack of support. They often killed for altruistic reasons and in association with suicide. Maternal perpetrators also dominated in filicide cases in which death was caused by a single episode or recurrent episodes of battering. Psychosis and psychotic depression were diagnosed in 51 percent of the maternal perpetrators, and 76 percent of the mothers were deemed not responsible for their actions by reason of insanity. Paternal perpetrators, on the other hand, were jealous of their mates, had a personality disorder (67%), abused alcohol (45%), or were violent toward their mates. In 18 percent of the cases, they were not held responsible for their actions by reason of insanity. During childhood, most of the perpetrators had endured emotional abuse from their parents or guardians, some of whom also engaged in alcohol abuse and domestic violence. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between maternal and paternal filicides in a sample of 200 cases in Finland. This report also provides a psychosocial profile of the perpetrator and victim in 65 filicides and a discussion of the influence of diagnoses on decisions regarding criminal responsibility.

The association between BMI and mortality using offspring BMI as an indicator of own BMI: large intergenerational mortality study

OBJECTIVES

To obtain valid estimates of the association between body mass index (BMI) and mortality by using offspring BMI as an instrumental variable for own BMI.

DESIGN

Cohort study based on record linkage, with 50 years of follow-up for mortality. Associations of offspring BMI with all cause and cause specific maternal and paternal mortality were estimated as hazard ratios per standard deviation of offspring BMI.

SETTING

A large intergenerational prospective population based database covering the general population of Sweden.

PARTICIPANTS

More than one million Swedish parent-son pairs.

RESULTS

The final dataset analysed contained information on 1 018 012 mother-son pairs (122 677 maternal deaths) and 1 004 617 father-son pairs (242 126 paternal deaths). For some causes of death, the patterns of associations between offspring BMI and mortality were similar to those seen for own BMI and mortality in previous studies. Parental mortality from diabetes, coronary heart disease, and kidney cancer had the strongest positive associations with offspring BMI (for example, hazard ratio (HR) for coronary heart disease per standard deviation increase in offspring BMI for mothers 1.15, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.17 and for fathers 1.10, 1.09 to 1.11). However, in contrast to the inverse association of own BMI with lung cancer and respiratory disease mortality seen in other studies, there was a positive association between offspring BMI and lung cancer mortality in mothers (1.12, 1.09 to 1.15) and fathers (1.03, 1.02 to 1.05) and between offspring BMI and respiratory mortality in mothers (1.05, 1.02 to 1.08) and fathers (1.02, 1.00 to 1.04). Associations of own BMI and offspring BMI with all cause, cardiovascular disease related, and non-cardiovascular disease related mortality were compared in a subset of father-son pairs (n=72 815). When offspring BMI was used as an instrumental variable for paternal BMI, the causal association between BMI and paternal cardiovascular disease mortality (HR per standard deviation of BMI 1.82, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.83) was stronger than that indicated by the directly observed association between own BMI and cardiovascular disease mortality (1.45, 1.31 to 1.61).

CONCLUSIONS

Use of offspring BMI as a predictor of own BMI, a technique that avoids problems of reverse causality, suggests that positive associations of BMI with all cause and cardiovascular mortality may be underestimated in conventional observational studies. Use of offspring BMI instead of own BMI in analyses of respiratory disease and lung cancer mortality, for which previous studies have reported consistent and strong inverse associations with own BMI, suggests that such studies have overstated the apparent adverse consequences of lower BMI with respect to these outcomes.

The association of early IQ and education with mortality: 65 year longitudinal study in Malmö, Sweden

OBJECTIVES

To establish whether differences in early IQ explain why people with longer education live longer, or whether differences in father's or own educational attainment explain why people with higher early IQ live longer.

DESIGN

Population based longitudinal study. Mortality risks were estimated with Cox proportional hazards regressions.

SETTING

Malmö, Sweden.

PARTICIPANTS

1530 children who took IQ tests at age 10 and were followed up until age 75.

RESULTS

Own educational attainment was negatively associated with all cause mortality in both sexes, even when early IQ and father's education were adjusted for (hazard ratio (HR) for each additional year in school 0.91 (95% CI 0.85 to 0.97) for men and HR 0.88 (95 % CI 0.78 to 0.98) for women). Higher early IQ was linked with a reduced mortality risk in men, even when own educational attainment and father's education were adjusted for (HR for one standard deviation increase in IQ 0.85 (95 % CI 0.75 to 0.96)). In contrast, there was no crude effect of early IQ for women, and women with above average IQ had an increased mortality risk when own educational attainment was adjusted for, but only after the age of 60 (HR 1.60 (95 % CI 1.06 to 2.42)). Adding measures of social career over and above educational attainment to the model (for example, occupational status at age 36 and number of children) only marginally affected the hazard ratio for women with above average IQ (<5%).

CONCLUSIONS

Mortality differences by own educational attainment were not explained by early IQ. Childhood IQ was independently linked, albeit differently, to male adult mortality and to female adult mortality even when father's education and own educational attainment was adjusted for, thus social background and own social career seem unlikely to be responsible for mortality differences by childhood IQ. The clear difference in the effect of IQ between men and women suggests that the link between IQ and mortality involves the social and physical environment rather than simply being a marker of a healthy body to begin with. Cognitive skills should, therefore, be addressed in our efforts to create childhood environments that promote health.

Childhood motor coordination and adult schizophrenia spectrum disorders

OBJECTIVE

The authors examined whether motor coordination difficulties assessed in childhood predict later adult schizophrenia spectrum outcomes.

METHOD

A standardized childhood neurological examination was administered to a sample of 265 Danish children in 1972, when participants were 10-13 years old. Adult diagnostic information was available for 244 members of the sample. Participants fell into three groups: children whose mothers or fathers had a psychiatric hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia (N=94); children who had at least one parent with a psychiatric record of hospitalization for a nonpsychotic disorder (N=84); and children with no parental records of psychiatric hospitalization (N=66). Psychiatric outcomes of the offspring were assessed through psychiatric interviews in 1992 when participants were 31-33 years of age, as well as through a scan of national psychiatric registers completed in May 2007.

RESULTS

Children who later developed a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (N=32) displayed significantly higher scores on a scale of coordination deficits compared with those who did not develop a mental illness in this category (N=133).

CONCLUSIONS

Results from this study provide further support for the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia and underscore the potential role of cerebellar and/or basal ganglia abnormalities in the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Focusing on young men: developing integrated services for young fathers

While some girls cope well as teenage mothers and often have a range of support services, young fathers do not often access services in their own right. This paper reviews literature about services for young men from the time they become sexually active. Through the use of a case study, it then asks questions about the type and nature of services required by young fathers. Health and social care practitioners may identify critical points in the life of a young father and offer appropriate services and 'joined-up' intervention, thereby facilitating long- and short-term involvement in the life of the child.

Fathers, physical child abuse, and neglect: advancing the knowledge base

Fathers are overrepresented as perpetrators of physical child maltreatment, particularly in its most severe forms. Despite this, the research literature continues to lack specificity regarding the role fathers play in risk for physical child abuse or neglect (PCAN). Furthermore, although fathers have received more attention with respect to child sexual abuse and its treatment, their influence has been largely disregarded in many intervention efforts to reduce PCAN. Inadequate attention to the role of fathers, both in research and practice, has numerous problematic implications for the prevention of child maltreatment. The goal of this special issue is to disseminate new research that examines fathers' roles by focusing on multiple fathering factors that may directly and indirectly shape both maternal and paternal risk of engaging in PCAN. In the introduction to the special issue, we highlight key questions in the research literature and present our perspective on how the articles included in this special issue address some of these gaps.

Mothers, men, and child protective services involvement

This study used data on 2,297 families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine whether Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement varies by maternal relationship status. Families were categorized according to whether the mother was living with a (male) partner or spouse, was involved in a dating relationship, or was not romantically involved. Families in which the mother was romantically involved were further delineated by whether her partner was the biological father of none, some, or all of the children in her household. Results indicated that families in which the mother was living with a man who was not the biological father of all children and those in which she was not romantically involved were significantly more likely to be contacted by CPS than those in which she was living with the biological father of all resident children. These findings withstood the inclusion of detailed controls for the mother's characteristics and behaviors and (in two-parent families) her partner's characteristics and behaviors, suggesting that they are not fully explained by observable social selection factors.

Fathers and maternal risk for physical child abuse

This study set out to examine father-related factors predicting maternal physical child abuse risk in a national birth cohort of 1,480 families. In-home and phone interviews were conducted with mothers when index children were 3 years old. Predictor variables included the mother-father relationship status; father demographic, economic, and psychosocial variables; and key background factors. Outcome variables included both observed and self-reported proxies of maternal physical child abuse risk. At the bivariate level, mothers married to fathers were at lower risk for most indicators of maternal physical child abuse. However, after accounting for specific fathering factors and controlling for background variables, multivariate analyses indicated that marriage washed out as a protective factor, and on two of three indicators was linked with greater maternal physical abuse risk. Regarding fathering factors linked with risk, fathers' higher educational attainment and their positive involvement with their children most discernibly predicted lower maternal physical child abuse risk. Fathers' economic factors played no observable role in mothers' risk for physical child maltreatment. Such multivariate findings suggest that marriage per se does not appear to be a protective factor for maternal physical child abuse and rather it may serve as a proxy for other father-related protective factors.

Family structure and fathers' well-being: trajectories of mental health and self-rated health

The association between marital status and health among men has been well documented, but few studies track health trajectories following family structure transitions among unmarried fathers. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study this article examines trajectories of paternal mental health and self-rated health, focusing on transitions into and out of residential relationships with the child's biological mother or a new partner during a five-year post-birth period (N = 4,331). Continuously married fathers report higher time-specific self-rated health and fewer mental health problems than continuously single fathers, controlling for underlying health trajectories. The disparity, however does not increase over time, providing little support for the marital resource model during these years. Static group differences suggest that resources fathers carry with them into unions may buffer them from the negative effects of union dissolution. The implications of these findings for cohabitation, as well as selection and causation arguments, are also discussed.

Do we see eye to eye? Chinese mothers' and fathers' parenting beliefs and values for toddlers in Canada and China

This study explores maternal and paternal parenting practices (authoritative or authoritarian) and parental values and goals for toddlers among Chinese mothers and fathers in Canada and China. The participants included 126 families of 1-year-old toddlers (67 Chinese Canadians and 59 mainland Chinese). The findings revealed that Chinese Canadian parents were more supportive of authoritative practices, and Chinese parents were more likely to support authoritarian practices. Between mothers and fathers, gender differences were found within countries. Interparental agreement for parenting beliefs varied by infant gender and country. For parental values, parents generally endorsed self-confidence as the most important trait for their toddlers. Endorsement of other traits (collectivistic and individualistic) varied in importance. Links among parenting beliefs and desired personality traits for their children were also explored.

Qualitative analysis of dermatoglyphics of the digito-palmar complex in children with severe recessive perceptively impaired hearing

The possible hereditary indicated differences in the ascending family tree was investigated in children with severe recessive perceptively impaired hearing, their parents, and healthy controls, using qualitative analysis of dermatoglyphics of the digito-palmar complex. The chi2 test was performed and biological distance was investigated by means according to Hiernaux Ag methods, and presented using Ward's method for the examined groups. The results show that the healthy control group differs from the groups of boys and girls with impaired hearing and also from their fathers mostly in palmar variables. The mothers were biologically more distant from the examined groups of patients, and more similar to the control group of randomly selected healthy female controls. The results indicate polygenic inheritance of sporadic sensoneurial hearing loss.

The role of mothers' and fathers' adrenocortical reactivity in spillover between interparental conflict and parenting practices

Guided by the affective spillover hypothesis, the present study examined the mediational role of parental adrenocortical reactivity to interparental conflict in explaining associations between interparental conflict and subsequent changes in mothers' and fathers' parenting practices over a 2-year period in a sample of 202 parents and their 6-year-old children. Results of autoregressive path models indicated that marital withdrawal was associated with increases in adrenocortical reactivity to conflict for mothers but not fathers. Furthermore, elevated adrenocortical reactivity in turn predicted greater psychologically controlling parenting practices and inconsistent discipline over time for mothers, but was not associated with changes in maternal warmth. Implications for clinicians and therapists working with maritally distressed parents and families are discussed.

Using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to screen for anxiety disorders

Screening for postnatal mood disorders in English-speaking women often uses the validated cut-off score of 13 or more on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to detect probable major depression. Increasingly there is evidence that for many women, and men, anxiety disorders can occur postnatally in the absence of depression. This study therefore examined data on the three EPDS items frequently found to cluster together on an anxiety factor for women (items 3, 4, and 5: EPDS-3A), to determine the optimum cut-off score to screen for specified anxiety disorders. A sample of 238 women and 218 men were administered a diagnostic interview for anxiety and depressive disorders, and completed the EPDS, at 6 weeks postpartum. The receiver operating characteristics show that the optimum cut-off score on the EPDS-3A for women is 6 or more (possible range: 0-9), and for men it is 4 or more, though it appears that the factor structure for men is different than for women. The conclusion is that the EPDS can be used to screen for probable depression in women (using the validated total cut-off score of 13 or more) and also probable anxiety (using the EPDS-3A cut-off score of 6 or more). For men there is already a validated total cut-off score for both depression and anxiety (6 or more)--however, if services are not using this, they can use the EPDS-3A score of 4 or more to screen for probable anxiety disorders in fathers, though further work needs to be undertaken to clarify whether the anxiety factor structure for men is different to that found for women.

Mental health well-being amongst fathers within the Pacific Island Families Study

This article investigates the prevalence of potential psychological disorder amongst a cohort of primarily Pacific fathers in New Zealand over their child's first 6-years of life. The analysis is based on data collected at 12-months, 2-years and 6-years postpartum during the Pacific Islands Families Study, and uses the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) to assess the prevalence of psychological distress amongst participant fathers at each measurement wave. Various sociodemographic and potentially confounding variables were also investigated to determine their effect on the risk of developing potential mental health disorder. The majority of fathers within the study reported good overall health and well-being and their prevalence of 'symptomatic' disorder was initially low at 12-months (3.90%) but increased significantly at 2-years (6.6%) and at 6-years (9.80%) in crude and adjusted analyses (both P-values < 0.001). In the adjusted analysis, the odds of symptomatic cases at 2-years was 1.7 (95% confidence interval: 1.1, 2.8) times that observed at 12-months postpartum and at 6-years the odds was 3.2 (95% confidence interval: 1.9, 5.2) times that observed at 12-months. Moreover in the adjusted analysis, smoking status, marital status, employment status, and ethnicity, were all significantly associated with the risk of developing symptomatic mental health disorder

Hypermasculinity, intimate partner violence, sexual aggression, social support, and child maltreatment risk in urban, heterosexual fathers taking parenting classes

This study examines the relationships between hypermasculinity, sexual aggression, intimate partner violence, social support, and child maltreatment risk among heterosexual fathers completing parenting classes. Hypermasculinity scores were found to be significant predictors of study participants' reported verbal, physical, and sexual aggression toward their intimate partners. Only lack of social support, operationalized as the reported frequency of participants' conversations with friends, relatives, or neighbors about their problems, was found to be a significant predictor of child maltreatment risk. Alcohol frequency, education, and monthly income were not found to be unique, significant predictors of any dependent variables. Implications for clinical practice and research as well as limitations to the current study are discussed.

Association of criminal convictions between family members: effects of siblings, fathers and mothers

BACKGROUND

Crime runs in families. Previous research has shown the existence of intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour.

AIM

The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which variation in criminal convictions may be explained by the criminality of siblings and by the intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour.

METHOD

Data from the Dutch Criminal Career and Life-course Study (CCLS) were used to analyse cross-tabulations and to conduct multi-level logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

The results indicate that criminal convictions of other family members are indeed correlated with individual conviction risk. The criminal history of siblings is most strongly correlated with the convictions of focal respondents. Results furthermore show that parental convictions only account modestly for the association of criminal convictions between siblings.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate that a direct influence between siblings is plausible, providing support for learning or imitation theories.

Intergenerational continuity in convictions: a five-generation study

BACKGROUND

Intergenerational continuity in offending has been assessed in several studies. However, this has rarely been studied using more than two prospective generations. Also, within-gender and cross-gender effects have rarely been addressed. The evidence for mechanisms that may explain transmission is mixed.

METHOD

Using conviction data on five generations (n = 6322) that span the years 1882-2007, transmission from parent to child was studied, disaggregating for males and females. Parental conviction before the birth of the child was studied separately from parental conviction after the birth of the child. Transmission was studied using odds ratios.

RESULTS

Parental convictions increase the risk of offspring convictions, although the risk increase is, at around two on average, not extremely high. Delinquency by the mother was also associated with offspring criminality, although because of low prevalence the odds ratios were more variable. Parental delinquency before birth does not lead to increased risk. For serious delinquency, these findings were stronger.

CONCLUSIONS

The study suggests that nurture rather than hereditary or labelling mechanisms may play a role in intergenerational continuity.

Paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes

OBJECTIVES

I sought to identify whether there were associations between paternal race/ethnicity and birth outcomes among infants with parents of same- and mixed-races/ethnicities.

METHODS

Using the National Center for Health Statistics 2001 linked birth and infant death file, I compared birth outcomes of infants of White mothers and fathers of different races/ethnicities by matching and weighting racial/ethnic groups following a propensity scoring approach so other characteristics were distributed identically. I applied the same analysis to infants of Black parents and infants with a Black mother and White father.

RESULTS

Variation in risk factors and outcomes was found in infants of White mothers by paternal race/ethnicity. After propensity score weighting, the disparities in outcomes by paternal or parental race/ethnicity could be largely attributed to nonracial parental characteristics. Infants whose paternal race/ethnicity was unreported on their birth certificates had the worst outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of maternal race/ethnicity to refer to infant race/ethnicity in research is problematic. The effects of maternal race/ethnicity on birth outcomes are estimated to be much larger than that of paternal race/ethnicity after I controlled for all covariates. Not listing a father on the birth certificate had a strong association with outcomes, which might be a source of bias in existing data and a marker for identifying infants at risk.

Very high birth weight of offspring is associated with an increased risk of leukemia in their mothers: results of a population-based cohort study

Although the association between birth weight and childhood leukemia is well described, the relation between a child's birth weight and parental risk of leukemia is unknown. We linked data from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study to the Israel Cancer Registry to ascertain the incidence of leukemia in mothers and fathers in relation to their offspring's birth weight. Birth weight >or=4500 g in any of the offspring was associated with a >3-fold risk of leukemia in mothers, but not fathers. Potential mechanisms include shared exposures of high birth weight infants and their mothers, possibly to radiation or growth factors, or genetic pathways leading to both high birth weight and leukemia.

The relationship between a less gender-stereotypical parenthood and alcohol-related care and death: a registry study of Swedish mothers and fathers

BACKGROUND

In general men tend to drink more alcohol and experience more alcohol-related sickness, injuries and mortality than women. In this paper, the overall hypothesis was that increased gender similarity in the division of parental duties would lead to convergence in alcohol-related harm. The aim was to analyse whether the risk of alcohol harm differs between parents who fit a gender-stereotypical versus those with a less gender-stereotypical division of childcare and paid work.

METHODS

The study sample was a retrospective registry-based cohort study of all Swedish couples who had their first child together in 1978 (N = 49,120). A less gender-stereotypical parenthood was indicated by paternity leave for fathers (1978-1979) and full-time work for mothers (1980). The outcome was inpatient care and/or death caused by alcohol psychosis, alcoholism, liver disease, or alcohol intoxication in the two decades following (1981-2001). Our main statistical method was multivariate logistic regression with odds ratios used to estimate relative risks.

RESULTS

The main results show that fathers who took paternity leave had 18% lower risk of alcohol-related care and/or death than other fathers. Mothers who worked full-time about two years after having a child had 71% higher risk than mothers who were unemployed or worked part-time.

CONCLUSION

A less gender-stereotypical division of duties between parents in early parenthood may contribute to a long-term decreased gender disparity regarding risky alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm. In order to know more about the causal direction however, future research has to consider subjects' drinking patterns in the years prior to parenthood.

Risk factors for paternal physical child abuse

OBJECTIVE

This study uses the developmental-ecological framework to examine a comprehensive set of paternal factors hypothesized to be linked to risk for paternal child abuse (PCA) among a diverse sample of fathers. Attention was given to fathers' marital status and their race/ethnicity (White, African American, and Hispanic).

METHODS

Interviews were conducted with 1257 married or cohabiting biological fathers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. PCA was assessed when the index children were 3 years old. Analyses included a comprehensive set of self-reported paternal variables as well as controls for maternal variables linked to child maltreatment. PCA was measured using proxy variables: two questions assessing the frequency of spanking in the past month and Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS-PC) [Straus, M., Hamby, S., Finkelhor, D., Moore, D., & Runyan, D. (1998). Identification of child maltreatment with the parent-child conflict tactics scales: Development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22, 249-270] psychological and physical aggression subscales.

RESULTS

Bivariate results indicated that Hispanic fathers were the least likely to spank or engage in psychological or physical aggression. Multiple regression analyses indicated that paternal employment and earnings were not significantly associated with PCA. Compared to cohabiting African American fathers, married African American fathers were found to be at greater risk for some forms of PCA. This pattern was not found for White or Hispanic families.

CONCLUSIONS

In this diverse sample of involved, biological fathers, there appear to be multiple potential risk-heightening pathways that vary across race/ethnic groups. With the proper control variables, paternal employment and earnings may not be as directly linked to fathers' physical abuse risk as has been previously thought.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

There is a need for interventions within the child welfare system that better promote family wellbeing by including fathers in services. Patterns linking paternal socio-demographic and psychosocial factors to psychological and physical child abuse varied as a function of paternal race/ethnicity, indicating that race/ethnic differences are among the important factors that intervention efforts should take into account.

Maternal type 1 diabetes reduces the risk of islet autoantibodies: relationships with birthweight and maternal HbA(1c)

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

The risk of type 1 diabetes is reduced in the children of mothers with type 1 diabetes compared with children of fathers with type 1 diabetes. We asked whether children of mothers with type 1 diabetes also have a decreased risk of developing islet autoantibodies, and which factors associated with maternal diabetes contribute to a reduced islet autoantibody risk in offspring.

METHODS

Singleton offspring of a mother (n = 1,008) or father with type 1 diabetes (n = 578) from the BABYDIAB study were included. Children were followed from birth for the development of islet autoantibodies defined as two or more autoantibodies to insulin, glutamic acid decarboxylase or insulinoma antigen 2 in two or more blood samples.

RESULTS

Islet autoantibody risk was lower in children of mothers with type 1 diabetes (5 year risk, 3.2% vs 5.7% in children of fathers with type 1 diabetes; p = 0.04). Among factors that differed between pregnancies from mothers with and without type 1 diabetes, birthweight was associated with islet autoantibody risk. Risk was reduced in children with birthweights in the lower (adjusted HR 0.33; 95% CI 0.14-0.75; p = 0.009) and upper (HR 0.45; 95% CI 0.21-0.97; p = 0.04) tertiles compared with the middle tertile. A sub-analysis of maternal HbA(1c) suggested that moderately elevated third trimester maternal HbA(1c) was also associated with a reduced islet autoantibody risk in children of mothers with type 1 diabetes (5.7-7%; HR 0.38; 95% CI 0.15-0.96; p = 0.04 vs children of mothers with HbA(1c) < 5.7%).

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

The risk of islet autoimmunity is modified by maternally influenced events such as birthweight.

Disaggregating the distal, proximal, and time-varying effects of parent alcoholism on children's internalizing symptoms

We tested whether children show greater internalizing symptoms when their parents are actively abusing alcohol. In an integrative data analysis, we combined observations over ages 2 through 17 from two longitudinal studies of children of alcoholic parents and matched controls recruited from the community. Using a mixed modeling approach, we tested whether children showed elevated mother- and child-reported internalizing symptoms (a) at the same time that parents showed alcohol-related consequences (time-varying effects), (b) if parents showed greater alcohol-related consequences during the study period (proximal effects), and (c) if parents had a lifetime diagnosis of alcoholism that predated the study period (distal effects). No support for time-varying effects was found; proximal effects of mothers' alcohol-related consequences on child-reported internalizing symptoms were found and distal effects of mother and father alcoholism predicted greater internalizing symptoms among children of alcoholic parents. Implications for the time-embedded relations between parent alcoholism and children's internalizing symptoms are discussed.