Parental communication and support is associated with improved developmental, health and behavioral outcomes in adolescence. This study explores the quality of mother-daughter communication about sexual maturation, abstinence and unintended pregnancy in Korogocho, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. We use data from 14 focus group discussions (n = 124) and 25 interviews with girls aged 12...

The purpose of this review is to summarize studies that have examined associations between maternal adiposity prior to and during pregnancy and cognitive and psychiatric problems in offspring. Of the 11 studies published since a 2011 systematic review, four examined cognitive outcomes alone, four assessed psychopathology exclusively, and three reported on both cognitive and psychiatric endpoint...

The recent expansion of Nicotine Replacement Therapy to pregnant women and children ignores the fact that nicotine impairs, disrupts, duplicates and/or interacts with essential physiological functions and is involved in tobacco-related carcinogenesis. The main concerns in the present context are its fetotoxicity and neuroteratogenicity that can cause cognitive, affective and behavioral disorder...

a- the goal of this survey is to negotiate the causes of inereasment of psycho-social problems in the adolescence field. we have purposed to evaluate and calegortize 95 persons who were self - refered or refrnal from legal system to crisis - intervention of welfare organization. these persons were classified into three groups through neurologic - psychologic - psychiatric approach: 1- adolescen...

objectives the aim of this study was to identify the health-related counseling needs of adolescent girls to assist them in this period of development. materials and methods forty teenage (13 - 19-year-old) girls, who had at least experienced 3 menstrual cycles, participated in this qualitative study. in-depth semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. the content analysis method ...

Adipokines are cytokines produced mainly by adipose tissue, besides many other tissues such as placenta, ovaries, peripheral-blood mononuclear cells, liver, muscle, kidney, heart, and bone marrow. Adipokines play a significant role in the metabolic syndrome and in cardiovascular diseases, have implications in regulating insulin sensitivity and inflammation, and have significant effects on growt...

Little is known about early life diet as a risk factor for early-onset persistent conduct problems (EOP CP). To investigate this, we used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a UK-based prospective epidemiological birth cohort. 5727 mother-child pairs (49.9 % boys) monitored since pregnancy (delivery date between 1 April, 1991 and 31 December, 1992) reported intake of ...

OBJECTIVE To describe the prevalence of maternity and paternity among subjects and its association with perinatal, socioeconomic and demographic variables. METHODS The participants were youth, aged 23, on the average, accompanied in a cohort study since they were born, in 1982, in Pelotas (Southern Brazil) and interviewed in 2004-5. Those who were considered eligible referred having had one o...

In a prospective birth cohort study in Brazil, the prevalence and early risk factors for smoking in adolescence were investigated. All 1982 hospital-born children in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, were enrolled in a birth cohort study (N = 5,914; boys: 3,037; girls: 2,877). All male participants were searched in 2000 when enrolling in the national army, and 78.8% were traced. In 2001, a sy...

The prenatal period is a critical time for neurodevelopment and is thus a period of vulnerability during which a range of exposures have been found to exert long-term changes on brain development and behavior with implications for physical and psychiatric health. During fetal life, neurons proliferate, migrate and form connections, providing the structure of the developing brain. Neurons reach ...