The young: a generation full of problems
Micha de Winter in Children as Fellow Citizens, 2018
Although DeMause’s work has frequently been criticized, among other things because of his one-sided psychological interpretations4, many other authors in general share his ideas on the direction of historical shifts. Since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the attitude towards children seems to have been subject to significant changes. One of the most radical points of view is held by Philippe Aries, who more or less denies the existence of a separate juvenile world before the beginning of modern times (Aries, 1987). In his view there was hardly any question of upbringing in the Middle Ages, because children from about the age of seven were incorporated in the adult world without a clear transitional phase. He contrasts this period with the Hellenic era, in which there was a clear demarcation between the worlds of adults and children, marked by initiation rites, training and education. According to Aries the period of upbringing, and with it the modern child, finally came into being by the end of the seventeenth century. Under the influence of the clergy parents were persuaded that they themselves were responsible for the spiritual and physical welfare of their children. Parental care led to the development of a new type of affective relations (‘loving care’) between parents and children; parents had the moral duty to prepare children, girls as well as boys, for adult life. Children were obliged to attend school, under a strict regime, and shut off from the outside world5.
The external frame at the Child Health Centre
Björn Salomonsson in Psychodynamic Interventions in Pregnancy and Infancy, 2018
What about parental care? Maternal death rates due to puerperal fever have declined steadily since 1847, when Ignaz Semmelweiss advised midwives to wash hands before deliveries. While deleterious effects of infectious diseases and malnutrition have largely vanished in the Western world, perinatal emotional problems have emerged more clearly. Still, in my view many suffering parents remain undetected. There is also a relative ignorance or unfamiliarity with handling infant mental health issues. This is surprising, since most professionals know about perinatal depression and its possible links with infant mental health. I have already touched on some explanations; from organizational factors to feelings of embarrassment among professionals. Indeed, they observe issues with infant crying, attachment, breastfeeding, sleep, etc., but obstacles remain which prevent such problems from receiving full attention. I have deduced recommendations on how to institute an external setting that enables anxious mothers, bewildered fathers, and unhappy babies to receive help.
Small really is beautiful
Denis Walsh, Sheila Kitzinger in Improving Maternity Services, 2017
Human nesting instinct appears to seek out the right emotional ambience for child bearing, which is as integral to establishing a protective, safe place for birth as are the immediate physical surrounds. Demere and colleagues observe that in the animal kingdom, the complexity of nesting increases as parental care increases.9 A suitable nest is needed to continue the rearing of a newborn until it is mature enough to fend for itself. Therefore, because human offspring are developmentally very immature at birth in comparison to many other mammals,10 women may seek out factors beyond mere physical safety when selecting an appropriate place to birth. The non-rational immediacy of decision making when women visited the centre suggests an intuitive and rapid appraisal of emotional and environmental ambience. Similarly, it was the absence of the right emotional ambience in the other maternity units they visited (the more formal and depersonalised interactions with staff during their visits), together with their unsuitable physical environments, that turned women against them.
The unique experience of home for parents and carers of children with disabilities
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2018
Tammy Aplin, Heloise Thornton, Louise Gustafsson
Inclusion criteria included being a parent or primary carer of a child with a disability, who had received home modifications within the last two years; were able to provide informed consent; had adequate skills in understanding spoken and written English and were able to read and write in English. Interviews were conducted with five participants in total, one mother and father pair, a father, a mother and a grandmother, each with one child who had a disability. As the grandmother within this study provided full-time parental care for her grandson for the purposes of this paper participants are referred to as parents and carers. All children had complex care needs and all were wheelchair users. The modifications completed within the families homes and further details of the participants are provided in Table 1. Currently in Australia home modifications to private homes are most often provided by government funded community organizations with wide variations in the level and type of assistance provided from each state and territory [13]. The families included within this study received home modifications from a community major home modification service provider in Queensland, Australia.
Lost in freedom: ambivalence on sexual freedom among Burundian adolescents living in the Nakivale refugee settlement, Uganda
Published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 2021
Yvette Ruzibiza, Lidewyde Berckmoes, Stella Neema, Ria Reis
While socio-economic differences between families were generally downplayed by Nakivale residents, perhaps due to the shared circumstances of displacement, some interlocutors suggested that families with an educated parent were frequently better off. These parents often worked in Kampala or Mbarara and sent money to support their families. Families with (adult) children in Europe or the USA also benefitted from their support through remittances, which reduced the families’ material strain in the settlement. However, most of the adolescents in our study described their life situation in terms of poverty, a poverty that helped to explain, but not excuse, parental neglect. The problem of who provides is crucial for understanding the complicated relations between Burundian parents and their adolescent children in the refugee setting. The narratives of adolescents reveal how relationships with parents are jeopardised when the UNHCR, rather than parents, provides, or if an adolescent can provide for him/herself. When parents directly provide for their children and their children therefore depend on them, parental care is reciprocated with respect, including acceptance of parental authority regarding boundaries to sexual freedoms. The involuntary, poverty-induced dissolution of the social-cultural contract between parents and children, appraised by adolescents as parental neglect, leads to the disempowerment and disrespect of parents and lies at the root of the ambivalence on sexual freedom. The lack of parental authority and engagement leads to the positive side of sexual freedom, as well as to too much freedom that harms.
Association of 24 h maternal deprivation with a saline injection in the neonatal period alters adult stress response and brain monoamines in a sex-dependent fashion
Published in Stress, 2018
Rafael Cabbia, Amanda Consoli, Deborah Suchecki
The proper development of altricial animals, such as rodents, non-human, and human primates, depends largely on attachment to the caregiver and the quality of parental care (Sullivan & Holman, 2010). In rats, the mother provides warmth, nourishment, and anogenital licking, which are important factors for adequate physical and emotional development of the pups. These behaviors have been coined “hidden regulators”, because they modulate physiological systems of the infant, besides their obvious functions (Hofer, 1994). One such system is the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, which undergoes a period of quiescence, ranging from postnatal day (PND) 4 to PND 14, characterized by an adrenal refractoriness to its trophic hormone, ACTH, and to stressors which in adults, result in increased corticosterone (CORT) levels (Witek-Janusek, 1988). This period is denominated Stress Hyporesponsive Period (SHRP) and is thought to be highly adaptive, due to maintenance of low and stable levels of CORT (Schoenfeld, Leathem, & Rabii, 1980), necessary for appropriate brain maturation (Meyer, 1983).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Parental Investment
- Fitness
- Sexual Conflict
- Gestation
- Lactation
- Altruism
- Oviparity
- Lack'S Principle
- Physical Fitness
- Emotion