This article addresses the question of whether literacy could be mediating the relationships of schooling to maternal health behavior in populations undergoing demographic transition. Recent studies in which literacy was directly assessed suggest a literacy pathway to demographic change. The literacy skills of 167 urban and rural mothers of school-aged children in Lalitpur District of the Kathm...

This article examined the effects of maternal depression during the postpartum period (Time 1) on the later behavior problems of toddlers (Time 3) and tested if this relationship was moderated by paternal psychopathology during toddlers' lives and/or mediated by maternal parenting behavior observed during mother-child interaction (Time 2). Of the 101 mothers who participated in this longitudina...

Using a sample of 219 families of children with (n=94) and without (n=125) developmental disabilities, this study examined the longitudinal perspectives of maternal stress in early (ages 3-5) and middle childhood (ages 6-13) and its relationship to mothers' and children's characteristics. Multivariate latent curve models indicated that maternal stress remained high and stable with minimal indiv...

The relationships between severity, chronicity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms and child outcomes were examined in a cohort of 4,953 children. Mothers provided self-reports of depressive symptoms during pregnancy, immediately postpartum, and when the child was 6 months old and 5 years old. At the age 5 follow-up, mothers reported on children's behavior and children completed a recep...

In prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), most virgin females are infanticidal. To determine the onset of maternal responsiveness, female prairie voles were tested for maternal behavior as virgins and at different times throughout pregnancy. Female voles that were infanticidal as virgins by and large remained infanticidal throughout pregnancy. In contrast, about 30% of voles that were maternal a...

I used the 2000 and 2005 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys to analyze the effect of maternal education and its pathways on chronic and acute malnutrition in Ethiopia. The pathways examined in this study are socioeconomic status, maternal health-seeking behavior, maternal knowledge of health and family planning and reproductive behavior. I find that maternal education works through all ex...

Oxytocin produces uterine contractions and milk ejection, functions related to parturition and nuturing. Studies were conducted to determine if this peptide, native to the brain and the posterior pituitary gland, plays a role in the induction of maternal behavior. Intact virgin female rats were given 0.4 mug of oxytocin, 0.4 mug of [Arg(8)]vasopressin, or saline through lateral ventricular cann...