There are differences in the importance of religiosity among racial groups. High spirituality and religiosity has been linked to lower amounts of depression, anxiety, and stress (Dailey 2007) and is, therefore an important variable to study. Surrender, a specific aspect of religiosity has been studied very little. A sample of undergraduate college students took the Surrender Scale (SS, Wong-McDonald & Gorsuch, 2000) and the BMMRS (Fetzer Institute, 1999). Surrendering to God may be found to predict health just as other forms of religiosity have. My interest in this study was to determine whether Surrender and church attendance vary among racial groups in Southern Appalachia as has been found in other geographic areas.

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During intake, a rural sample of 1312 women admitted for low-risk singleton birth was asked the open-ended question, "How do you deal with stress?" Responses were categorized into 18 stress coping strategies, including Prayer/Religiosity (n = 22). Demographically, women endorsing prayer/religiosity (PR) were older (p < .001), more educated (p = .007), more likely to be married (p = .004), and had more children (p = .001) than non PR women. PR women were significantly less likely to report alcohol use (p = .028), tobacco use (p = .034), or have a positive prenatal drug screen (p = .045), and far more likely to breastfeed (p = .006) compared to Non PR women, all factors predictive of pregnancy and birth health. PR women did not differ from others in presence of complications, but they did have infants who were hospitalized fewer days at birth (p = .005).

During intake history a rural sample of 1312 women admitted for singleton birth were asked “How do you deal with stress?” Stress coping answers were categorized into 18 stress coping strategies, which were explored as predictors of infant feeding method choice, dichotomized into any breastfeeding or exclusive bottle feeding. Coping with stress through Prayer/Religion (p = .002), taking a Bath/Shower (p = .001), Exercise (p = .001), and Reading/Writing (p = .001) predicted breastfeeding. Smoking (p = .003), Resting (p = .03), and “Not Well” (p = .035) predicted that women would not breastfeed

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The benefits of breastfeeding and the duration of breastfeeding required to achieve those benefits have long been debated. The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) has noted benefits to the infant in such areas as increased immunity to infectious disease, improved neurodevelopment, reduced rates of infant mortality, as well possible benefits much later in life included reduced risk of obesity and diabetes. Other studies have suggested cognitive benefits of breastfeeding. As of 2001, the reported rate of the initiation of any breastfeeding at all in the US was 70% (46% breastfeeding exclusively—no formula supplementation), with 33% (17% exclusively) still breastfeeding at 6 months. The purpose of this study was to evaluate temperament differences among children who differed in breastfeeding history. To our knowledge no one to date has investigated the relationship between breastfeeding and dimensions of infant temperament. The data were collected through two studies being conducting by the Program for the Study of Infancy at East Tennessee State University. One is a study in which mother-infant pairs are brought into the lab for a one hour temperament, language, and mother-infant interaction procedure, and the other is an ongoing collection of temperament, language, and child history from a university laboratory school childcare program. The participants in these studies included 94 rural Appalachian children (83% White). When participants are first enrolled in these studies, parents are asked to fill out a Prenatal Birth Stress Inventory which included pregnancy and birth history variables and a temperament measure (Infant Behavior Questionnaire [IBQ], Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire [ECBQ], or Child Behavior Questionnaire [CBQ]). In our study, 71.6% of mothers reported breastfeeding for 3 months or more and 46.1% reported continuing to breastfeed for 6 months or more. We did not ask about exclusive versus supplemented breastfeeding. After statistical analysis, it was found that several dimensions of temperament differed in relation to duration of reported breastfeeding. Focused attention was unexpectedly lower in children who were breastfed for six months or more (n = 31; mean=3.69, SD=.88) than in children that were breastfed six months or less (n = 32; mean=4.56, SD=.85; F(1,61)=6.78, p=.012). Expected differences were found in other temperament dimensions. Frustration (F(1,53)=6.68, p = .013) and sadness (F(1,61) = 8.97, p = .004) were found to be significantly lower in infants that were breastfed six months or more. The ability to be soothed was rated significantly higher (F(1,61) = 5.03, p = .029) for the children who were breastfed six months or more than for children breastfed less than six months. Differences were found for the same variables in the same directions when comparing ratings of children breastfed 3 months or more compared to children breastfed less than three months.

Background and Aims: Estimates of the rate of prematurity in the US range from 6% to 15% of all births (Slattery & Morrison, 2002). One factor found to be related to preterm birth in some studies is age. In this study we sought to determine whether the rates of certain pregnancy and birth complications and interventions differ between adult and teenage mothers who have given birth prematurely. Methods: This chart review studied all infants born prematurely who were cared for at an Appalachian teaching hospital during 1993 and 1994 (n = 241; 46 under age 20 and 195). A grid containing 46 pieces of data was used to collect data from charts. Two trained data collectors were used throughout the study. For this study only information recorded by medical personnel was extracted from charts. Mothers under 20 years of age were considered to be adolescent, while those 20 and over were considered to be adults. These ages are recognized by federal funding agencies as well as local adolescent prenatal clinics. Results: Several pregnancy and birth complications and interventions were compared for births of premature infants born to adolescent and adult mothers (e.g., PIH, PPROM, Preeclampsia, betamethasone administration). Only the c-section rate differed significantly with 25% of infants of adolescent mothers born by c-section compared to 45.8% of adult mothers’ infants. Conclusion: The proportions of the investigated categories of pregnancy and birth complications do not differ significantly between adolescent and adult mothers who have given birth to preterm infants. Only the rate of infants delivered by c-section differed with adolescents more likely to deliver preterm infants vaginally. Reference: Slattery, M. M. & Morrison, J. J. (2002). Preterm delivery (Review). The Lancet, 360, 1498-.

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