Adaptive evolution is often strongly influenced by maternal inheritance that transfers the parental strategies across generations. The consequences of maternal effects for the offspring generation depend on the between-generation similarity in environments and on the evolved sensitivity of the offspring's ontogeny to maternal effects. When these factors differ between sons and daughters, matern...

The aim of this study was to examine the developmental significance of the newly developed dimensional approach to attachment state of mind by investigating its capacity to predict individual differences in the quality of two caregiving behaviors-maternal sensitivity and maternal autonomy support-that are linked to numerous important child outcomes. Seventy-one upper-middle-class, predominantly...

This study examines the association between maternal factors and low birth weight among newborns at a tertiary hospital in Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study where mothers were followed through from first booking till delivery. There were 666 mothers who delivered from May 2007 to March 2008. Infants' birth weight were compared with maternal age, pre-pregnancy BMI, fathers BMI, parity, ...

We interrogated the genetic modulation of maternal oxytocin response and its association with maternal behavior using genetic risk scores within the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene. We identified a novel SNP, rs968389, to be significantly associated with maternal oxytocin response after a challenging mother-infant interaction task (Still Face Paradigm) and maternal separation anxiety from the inf...

AIMS To investigate the importance of a maternal and paternal family history of Type 2 diabetes and their combined association with plasma leptin and adiponectin levels in overweight Latino children with a family history of Type 2 diabetes (T2DM). METHODS This cross-sectional study investigated the combined association of a maternal and paternal family history of T2DM with leptin and adiponec...

OBJECTIVE To determine if adolescent obesity is associated with parenting characterized by lower sensitivity and lower monitoring of adolescent activities. METHODS We used data from 744 adolescents in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Height and weight were measured at age 15½ years and obesity defined as body mass in...

BACKGROUND Childhood vaccination coverage can be estimated from a range of sources. This study aims to validate vaccination data from a longitudinal population-based demographic surveillance system (DSS) against data from a clinical cohort study. METHODS The sample includes 821 children in the Vertical Transmission cohort Study (VTS), who were born between December 2001 and April 2005, and we...