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No evidence found on women’s negative emotions following an abortion

Divorce has become more acceptable, less stigmatized, but also less common

Although past studies have shown an association between union instability (i.e., change in family structure) and children’s aggressive behaviors, the mechanism by which this occurs is less understood. This study ( N  = 3,387) examined whether father and mother involvement, coparenting support, and maternal responsiveness explained the association between union instability in early life and children’s aggressive behaviors at 9 years, and whether relationship status moderated this association. Findings reveal that only coparenting support mediated this association and only for children whose mothers divorced (not for mothers who experienced a nonmarital separation), suggesting that when a divorce occurs, the relationship between partners (coparenting) is more important than the relationship with children (parenting) for children’s social adjustment.

U.S. lags behind in terms of maternal mortality rate

Kirsten Stoebenau and Sangeetha Madhavan examine impact of economic inequality through NICHD R03

New maximum of $20,000

Maternal postpartum depression has been shown to be one of the main predictors of externalizing and internalizing behaviors in toddlers and adolescents. Research suggests that presence of such behaviors can be observed as early as infancy. The current study uses longitudinal data from 247 mothers to examine the relationship between postpartum depressive symptoms at 8 weeks and the infant's externalizing and internalizing behaviors at 12 months. In unadjusted linear regression models, there were associations between postpartum depressive symptoms and infant externalizing behaviors (β=0.082, SE=0.032, p=0.012) and internalizing behaviors (β=0.111, SE=0.037, p=0.003). After controlling for potential confounding factors, including maternal age, race, education, home ownership, smoking status in the postpartum period, marital status, parenting stress, and happiness from becoming a parent, the associations between postpartum depressive symptoms and infant externalizing (β=0.051, SE=0.034, p=0.138) and internalizing behaviors (β=0.077, SE=0.040, p=0.057) were reduced and became non-significant. Furthermore, in these models the total amount of variance explained was 17.2% (p<0.0001) for externalizing behaviors and 10.5% (p<0.01) for internalizing behaviors; the only significant predictor of externalizing behaviors was maternal age (β=-0.074, SE=0.030, p=0.014), and of internalizing behaviors was white non-Hispanic ethnicity (β=-1.33, SE=0.378, p=0.0005). A combined effect of the confounding factors seems to explain the finding of no significant independent association between postpartum depressive symptoms and infant externalizing and internalizing behaviors.

Multigenerational Relationships and Economic Resources Among Black and White Families in the US

Post-abortion Contraception Preference

Can conditional transfers reduce poverty of the next generation? Evidence from young adults after 15 years of a Mexican program