published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Physiology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Background: Becoming a parent can elicit many emotions. For some parents, it can be a time of anxiety and depression. Fathers are not exempt from this type of depression. Paternal depression (PD) is a serious health issue with long lasting consequences for both the father and child. Unfortunately, little research has been done on PD. The research that has been done recommends routine PD screening. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to determine the current PD screening practices and screening tools of providers in the Tucson area. The study sample consisted of randomly selected healthcare providers. The total number of possible participants was eighty two. Participants were provided a 20 question survey to assess screening practices as well as the beliefs, attitudes, norms, and confidence of providers regarding PD screening. Results: The study found many providers routinely screen for maternal depression but few screen for PD. While providers did recognize the impact PD has on children, this belief was not enough to implement screening. Most providers were unsure if PD was serious or if PD screening and therapy were effective. Few providers had any training or education regarding PD and few were confident in their ability to screen for PD. Providers who felt confident in their ability to screen, acknowledge the USPTF recommendation for screening all adults for depression, and had positive beliefs/attitudes regarding PD screening were more likely to have incorporated screening into practice. Of those who do screen, the majority do not use a validated screening. Conclusions: Although research recommends PD screening, it has not been implemented into practice. Training and education regarding PD is also lacking. The next step in research is to implement interventions that improve screening practices among providers, increase provider confidence in screening, and increase provider's awareness about PD.

No description available.

Interventions to date have been minimally effective in reducing the rates of women gaining more weight than recommended by the Institute of Medicine in pregnancy. Food cravings are common in pregnancy, but their relationship, if any, with prenatal weight gain has received little attention in the literature. The purpose of this retrospective chart review study was to describe the frequency of cravings, associations between cravings and weight gain, and to determine what factors were predictive of reporting more cravings in pregnancy. A total of 1,259 charts were reviewed of women receiving care in an urban, community health center between 2006 and 2012. Women with healthy, singleton pregnancies were eligible to be included in the study. Of the 812 eligible women, 620 were excluded due to incomplete data. One-third of women in the sample (n = 194) were primiparous women. Their mean BMI was 28.3 (SD = 6.9). Almost 80% identified themselves as being Multi-Racial or African American. Cravings were reported by 75.3% of women in early pregnancy and 81.4% in late pregnancy. No differences in prenatal weight gain were seen between women with and without cravings. BMI, smoking, stress in early pregnancy, and emotional distress were not related to the numbers of cravings reported in pregnancy. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that two predictors, age and stress in late pregnancy, accounted for 8.7% of the variance in the numbers of cravings reported in pregnancy (R² =.087, R² adjusted = .070, F (2, 108) = 5.14, p = .007). Younger age was associated with reporting a greater number of cravings, β = -.205, t (110) = -2.222, p =.028, as was higher stress in late pregnancy, β = .201, t (110) =2.184, p =.031. The findings of this study suggest that cravings are not related to prenatal weight gain, although the quality of this study was undermined by its small sample size and problems with the way cravings were measured. Developing a valid and reliable measure of cravings would be a fruitful next step.

These studies were conducted to determine the mechanisms by which prolactin (PRL) exerts its luteotropic effects on the mink corpus luteum (CL). Three experimental models were developed and utilized in these studies. In the first model, the ovaries from pregnant mink were collected at regular intervals throughout gestation, half the animals were treated with the dopamine agonist 2-bromo-$ alpha$-ergocryptine (bromocryptine), to suppress their endogenous PRL levels, and half were exposed to their endogenous PRL levels. The second model consisted of treating anestrous animals with exogenous gonadotropins to induce follicular development and ovulation, half the animals were then treated with PRL while the other half were left as untreated controls. In the third model, CL were collected from mink at several stages of mink gestation. The cells were enzymatically dispersed, placed in culture and incubated with different concentrations of PRL, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and (Bu)$ sb2$cAMP. Using these 3 models, the effects of PRL on P450 side chain cleavage (P450scc), 3$ beta$-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3$ beta$-HSD), steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), luteinizing hormone receptor (LHr) and prolactin receptor (PRLr) mRNA were determined. Messenger RNA levels for P450scc did not vary significantly over the course of mink gestation and treatment of animals with bromocryptine did not alter the abundance. In the anestrous model, treatment of mink with PRL reduced P450scc mRNA levels below that of the untreated control, while treatment of cultured mink luteal cells with increasing concentrations of PRL had no effect on the abundance of P450scc mRNA. The abundance of 3$ beta$-HSD mRNA varied over the course of mink gestation. Levels were low during embryonic diapause, increased during CL reactivation and peaked during post-implantation gestation. Treatment of mink with bromocryptine prevented the pre-implantation rise in 3$ bet

This thesis presents a cultural analysis of teenage pregnancy in a Cree community. In the last fifty years, social and material change, prompted by residential schooling and the growth of settlement life, have catalyzed a shift in teenage perceptions of parental authority and norms of social relations. Today the peer group is a pre-eminent agent of socialization, generating pressure to drink and be sexually active. The peer group also, in part, sustains the valuation of motherhood, and some indigenous norms of interpersonal communication and socially appropriate behaviour. In this contemporary context, the meanings of teenage childbearing are multiple, and different for each individual. / Although a biological fact, teenage pregnancy may also be seen as a product of how differentials in power between teenagers, their peers and people of different age and social groupings are played out. The construction of a category of adolescence and the centrality of fertility and reproduction are keys to understanding the social and symbolic significance of teenage pregnancy. This analysis emphasizes the interactive relationship between historical change, ideological beliefs and individual perceptions in shaping the meaning of teenage pregnancy in a Cree community.

The researcher focused on developing a psycho-developmental programme that could be used as an intervention technique to combat teenage pregnancy. The literature research indicated that general factors contributing to teenage pregnancy could be divided into individual factors and social factors. The following individual factors played a major role towards teenage pregnancy: lack of knowledge, lack of future vision, lack of educational and personal goals and poor academic performance. Social factors such as poor health care services, poor socio-economic condition, unemployment and poverty could be seen as the most common general factors that lead to teenage pregnancy. Family disorientation because of families consisting of one parent, alcohol and drug abuse, and lack of parent support increase the risk to get involved in prostitution and sexual molesting ending up in teenage pregnancy. Psychological aspects such as low self-image, low self-concept, low self-esteem and an external locus of control are also contributing factors to teenage pregnancy. Cultural rituals, myths about sexuality and teenage pregnancy, poor recreational facilities, poor socio-economic condition leading to poverty and increasing the risk of becoming a victim of sexual abuse could be seen as the most common cultural factors which lead to teenage pregnancy. For the purpose of this research a cultural quasi-experimental design was used. Enrolled pupils between fourteen and sixteen years from the following culture groups: white, black (rural), black (urban) and brown were included in this research. These pupils were enrolled students from the following High Schools in Parys: Parys High School, Phehelang High School, Barnard Molekwane High School, Weiveld High School and Sckonkinville High School. All the pupils from the control group, experimental group and development groups were exposed to the completion of a questionnaire that was utilised for pre-testing as well as post-testing. This questionnaire consisted out of three dimensions: knowledge on sexuality, attitudes towards sexuality and myths occurring in connection with sexuality. This questionnaire is available in Afrikaans and Sotho. Only the experimental group was exposed to the psycho-development programme. The results of the research indicated that no differences between the research groups (experimental, development and control groups), age (14 - 16 years) and gender (male and female) groups were reported before the implementation of the psycho-educational programme. Only statistical differences in the cultural groups (white, black and brown) were found: between white and brown in connection with knowledge, attitudes and myths, and between white and black differences in connection with knowledge and myths. Between brown and black differences were found in connection with attitudes. The results after the implementation of the psycho-educational programme showed that no differences were found in connection with age and gender. The experimental group reported a positive change in attitudes towards teenage pregnancy, while knowledge increased in the development group. No changes were reported in the control group. Within the different cultural groups the following results were reported: Knowledge increased in the white group, while within the black group changes in knowledge, attitudes and myths were found. The results for the brown group did not report any change. The following conclusion could be made that the developed psycho-educational programme did have an impact on improving the knowledge and changing the attitudes of the study population in connection with sexuality and teenage pregnancy. The limitations of this research were identified and recommendations were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

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It has been reported world wide that over the past fifty years production has dramatically increased in dairy cattle but at the same time fertility rates have steadily declined, particularly in mature cows. Fertility of heifers that were bred for the first time has not been affected. One of the major reasons for such fertility decline in mature cows could be impaired progesterone production. Therefore relationships of parity with reproductive performance, its effect on progesterone concentrations and genes associated with progesterone synthesis were examined in this thesis. In the first experiment, breeding records of 163 Holstein heifers and cows in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd/4th parities were used to compare pregnancy rates among heifers and parity cows and between parity cows. Progesterone levels of heifers, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd/4th parity (10 animals each group) were measured from milk and blood samples. First and second inseminations pregnancy rates were higher in heifers compared to other parity cows. Furthermore 1st parity cows showed higher pregnancy rates than 2nd and 3rd/4th parity cows. However, P₄ levels were not significantly different among animals of different parity. In the second experiment, expression levels of steroidogenic genes – StAR, P450scc, 3-β HSD; apoptotic genes Bax and Bcl-2; and HSP70 in corpus luteum obtained from six heifers and three 2nd/3rd parity lactating cows were compared using RT-PCR. Relative optical density with house keeping gene was obtained for each gene. Analysis of variance revealed that expression levels of steroidogenic and Bax genes are higher (p<0.05) in cows than heifers. HSP70 gene and Bcl-2 gene expressions were not different (P>0.05) between the two groups. This study confirmed a clear relationship between parity and reproductive performance. There was no significance relationship between parity and circulating progesterone levels. Steroidogenic genes expression was higher in lactating cows than heifers and no differences were seen in mRNA levels of Bcl2, and HSP70 genes between heifers and mature cows. Bax mRNA expression was higher in mature cows suggesting that the lifespan of corpus luteum may be compromised in 2nd and 3rd parity cows, resulting in early embryonic mortality and reduced pregnancy rates.