We studied a population of rufous whistlers, Pachycephala rufiventris, throughout a single breeding season in central New South Wales, Australia. We evaluated the relation between plasma testosterone (T) and reproductive behaviors using both simulated territorial intrusions (STIs) and subcutaneous T implants. We compared circulating T values to aggression levels of males (using STI) during pair...

BACKGROUND This study examined whether the experiences of childhood or adolescent parental divorce/separation and parental alcohol problems affected the likelihood of offspring DSM-IV lifetime alcohol dependence, controlling for parental history of drug, depression, and antisocial behavior problems. METHOD Data were drawn from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Relat...

People often speak of children as being "spoiled" and many parents worry about the possibility of spoiling their infants and children. Many pediatricians, however, are uncomfortable with this term because it is a poorly defined and derogatory expression. Some would even deny that infants and children can be spoiled. Avoiding the use of the expression spoiled can create difficulties in communica...

The authors investigated genetic and environmental contributions to the relationships between children's (N=9,319 twin pairs) prosocial behavior and parental positivity and negativity toward them. Children's prosocial behavior was rated by parents at ages 3, 4, and 7 and by teachers at age 7. At each age, parents described their feelings and discipline toward each twin. Parental positivity was ...

Title of Document: MATERNAL AND PATERNAL PERCEPTIONS OF HOSTILITY TOWARD THEIR ADOLESCENTS: LINKS TO ADOLESCENT PEER-REPORTED SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR. Heidi Marie Butler, Master of Science, 2008 Directed By: Professor Jude Cassidy, Psychology The goal of the present study was to examine the links between parental perceptions of hostility and peer-reported adolescent social accepta...

The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine modifies social behavior in a number of species, including humans. Because the neural substrates for social behavior in prairie voles are sexually dimorphic, we tested whether the effects of fluoxetine on these behaviors differ by sex. Parental and pair-bonded voles were chronically treated with fluoxetine or saline and subsequently tested f...

BACKGROUND Parental rearing behavior is a significant etiological factor for the vulnerability of psychopathology and has been an issue of clinical research for a long time. For this scope instruments are important who asses economically recalled parental rearing behavior in a clinical practice. Therefore, a short German instrument for the assessment of the recalled parental rearing behavior Fr...

It is generally believed that level of paternity (the proportion of zygotes in a brood that were fertilized by the male providing parental care) has an i mportant role in the evolution of parental care. We have used population genetics models to investigate this role. The models indicate that only in mating systems where a parental male "sacrifices" promiscous matings can paternity influence th...

Neonate-directed care is rare in non-avian reptiles, but female pitvipers attend their young for a period of time after birth. One of the primary functions of parental care is the protection of offspring from predators, and parents of diverse taxa are able to modulate their antipredator behavior in the presence of offspring. To test the hypothesis that the antipredator behavior of post-parturie...