BACKGROUND Previous research has found associations between parental feeding practices and children's eating behaviour and weight status. Prospective research is needed to elucidate these relationships. METHODS One hundred and fifty-six mothers of 2- to 4-year-old children completed questionnaires including measures of maternal feeding practices (pressure to eat, restriction, monitoring and m...

This study mainly aims to explore and examine the relationship between family socio-economic status and maternal health care seeking behaviour in rural Bangladesh. This is a total of 200 eligible couples were selected from 3 villages namely Rathni, Beurjari and Udaipur of Baliadangi Upazila through simple random sampling. The selected couples were interviewed by questionnaire method. Frequency ...

OBJECTIVE To identify whether obstetric and perinatal factors are independent predictors of child behaviour at 5 years. METHODOLOGY The Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) is a prospective cohort study of 8556 mothers enrolled in early pregnancy. The relationship of obstetric and perinatal factors, maternal lifestyle, age and gender of the child, and social disadvantage were examined a...

It is well known that prepartum sows have an innate motivation to build a nest before parturition. Under commercial conditions, however, the farrowing crate, which is widely used in modern pig husbandry, inhibits this innate behaviour through the lack of space, materials, or both. Thus, restriction of nest-building behaviour could generate increased stress, resulting in a decrease in maternal e...

BACKGROUND The low expression polymorphism of the MAOA gene in interaction with adverse environments (G × E) is associated with antisocial behaviour disorders. These have their origins in early life, but it is not known whether MAOA G × E occurs in infants. We therefore examined whether MAOA G × E predicts infant anger proneness, a temperamental dimension associated with later antisocial behavi...

Depression is a common and debilitating illness and there is a strong association between maternal depression and childhood Conduct Disorder (CD). This paper examines the impact of maternal depression on the outcome of treatment for the prevention of CD. Data from the Hutchings et al. (2007) Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of a parenting programme for parents of high-risk three and four year ...

BACKGROUND Specific thematic content arising from children’s doll play is often considered to give clinically meaningful information regarding their mental state, but has received little systematic enquiry. This exploratory study examined the negative and atypical content themes in the attachment story narratives of children with behaviour problems, and their associations with child symptomatol...

Parental care promotes offspring survival and, for livestock species, this care is provided solely by the mother. Maternal behaviour in the sheep has been exceptionally well-studied compared with other species and many of the underpinning biological processes leading to the expression of maternal care are known. In this review the current state of play with regard to the biology of maternal car...

Keywords: faecal assay field endocrinology life history trade-offs maternal care noninvasive technique parental care radiometabolism territoriality Variation in maternal behaviour can have profound consequences on offspring phenotype, survival, reproductive success, as well as maternal fitness. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie variation in maternal care can provide us with a more thor...