What Predicts Pre-adolescent Compliance with Family Rules? A Longitudinal Analysis of Parental Discipline, Procedural Justice, and Legitimacy Evaluations

During adolescence, individuals make judgements on the legitimacy of authorities to make and enforce rules and they differentiate between various types of rules. This study tracked a socially and racially diverse sample (47% White) of 800 Brazilians for three years, ages 11-13 (50% female), allowing for variation between issues and individuals. The strongest predictors of compliance were adolescents' beliefs that parents were legitimate authorities. Other significant predictors were authorities' procedural justice and disciplinary practices. Legitimacy attributions partially mediated the relationship between procedural justice and compliance. Compliance and legitimacy varied across issues. Across time, parenting variables diminished in predictive strength while legitimacy attributions increased. Procedural justice practices may partially establish parental legitimacy, while disciplinary practices are less effective and perhaps counter-productive.

Altered left ventricular diastolic function in subjects with spinal cord injury

STUDY DESIGN

This is cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to investigate the cardiac structure and function of subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI) and the impact of metabolic, hemodynamic and inflammatory factors on these parameters.

SETTING

São Paulo, Brazil.

METHODS

Sixty-five nondiabetic, nonhypertensive, sedentary, nonsmoker men (34 with SCI and 31 healthy subjects) were evaluated by medical history, anthropometry, laboratory tests, analysis of hemodynamic and inflammatory parameters and echocardiography.

RESULTS

Subjects with SCI had lower systolic blood pressure and higher levels of C-reactive protein and tumor necrosis factor receptors than the healthy ones. Echocardiography data showed that the SCI group presented similar left ventricular (LV) structural and systolic parameters, but lower initial diastolic velocity (Em) (9.2 ± 0.5 vs 12.3 ± 0.5 cm s(-1); P<0.001) and higher peak early inflow velocity (E)/Em ratio (7.7 ± 0.5 vs 6.1 ± 0.3; P = 0.009) compared with the able-bodied group, even after adjustment for systolic blood pressure and C-reactive protein levels. Furthermore, injured subjects with E/Em >8 had lower peak spectral longitudinal contraction (Sm) (9.0 ± 0.7 vs 11.6 ± 0.4 cm s(-1); P<0.001) and cardiac output (4.2 ± 0.2 vs 5.0 ± 0.2 l min(-1); P = 0.029), as well as higher relative wall thickness (0.38 ± 0.01 vs 0.35 ± 0.01; P = 0.005), than individuals with SCI with E/Em<8, but similar age, body mass index, blood pressure, injury level, metabolic parameters and inflammatory marker levels.

CONCLUSION

Subjects with SCI presented impaired LV diastolic function in comparison with able-bodied ones. Moreover, worse LV diastolic function was associated with a pattern of LV concentric remodeling and subclinical decreases in systolic function among injured subjects. Overall, these findings might contribute to explain the increased cardiovascular risk reported for individuals with SCI.