Association between problematic behaviors and individual/environmental factors in difficult children

BackgroundDifficult children are ones whose behavior deviates from the norm, which manifests as restlessness, violence, and difficulty in separating from the mother. Such problematic behaviors usually exhaust their parents during child rearing. This study aimed to identify individual and environmental factors that influence children’s problematic behavior, which could be helpful in supporting parents’ child rearing.MethodsRecords of children’s problematic behaviors and their individual or environmental information were collected from 8691 children at their 5-year-old health checks. Problematic behaviors were divided into three categories; anxious behaviors, developmental behaviors, and personal habits. Individual factors included sex, parental age, birth order, birth weight, and birth abnormalities. The environmental factors were mother’s smoking during pregnancy or currently, partner’s cooperation in child rearing, having someone to consult about child rearing, and television viewing time. Using logistic regression, we identified the association between such behaviors and aggravating factors.ResultsProblematic behavior was identified in 2.2%, 11.5%, and 16.1% of cases, respectively, with regard to anxious behaviors, developmental behaviors, and personal habits. The individual factors (including birth order and birth abnormality), and the environmental factors (including mothers currently smoking, lack of someone to consult about child rearing, and long television-watching time) were associated with the odd ratio of increased risk for some problematic behaviors.ConclusionBehaviors in difficult children are not influenced by individual factors but by several environmental factors. To reduce the parental child rearing burden, health providers should be aware of these aggravating factors.     

儿童青少年多动冲动行为与父母养育方式的关系

目的 :分析儿童青少年多动冲动行为与父母养育方式之间的关系。方法 :抽取 8～ 17岁小学至高中学生共84 2人 ,使用“Conners儿童行为问卷 (PSQ)”和“父母养育方式评价量表 (EMBU)”进行问卷调查。结果 :多动 -冲动组父母的“情感温暖、理解”得分均明显低于正常组 ,而“惩罚、严厉”和“拒绝、否认”得分均明显高于正常组 ,差异均具显著性 (P <0 .0 1) ,Logistic回归分析发现父亲的“惩罚、严厉”和母亲的“情感温暖、理解”对儿童青少年多动冲动行为有影响。结论 :多动冲动儿童青少年的父母存在不良教养方式 ,可能是造成孩子多动冲动行为的原因之一。     

Combined effects of chlordiazepoxide treatment and food deprivation on concurrent measures of feeding and activity

The effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP-0, 5, 10 mg/kg) on feeding, rearing, and ambulatory locomotion of male Holtzman rats were investigated in an open-field arena under 3 different conditions of food deprivation (0, 24, 48 hr). Both CDP and food deprivation enhanced feeding, with their combined effects being essentially additive. Also, CDP significantly decreased both rearing and ambulatory locomotion, although this effect tended to be counteracted by increases in food deprivation. The interrelationship (correlation) of the behavioral effects of CDP suggested that the reduction in activity measures is due, in part, to the competing or incompatible nature of feeding and that rearing and ambulatory locomotion are somewhat redundant measures of activity under the present conditions.     

Sex-dependent biological changes following prenatal nicotine exposure in the rat

Nicotine was administered to adult female rats in drinking water starting 6 weeks before mating and continuing throughout pregnancy. The litters were cross-fostered to control dams at birth. Prenatal nicotine treatment reduced both the number of male rats born and the male birth weight. Female offspring were not significantly affected. Rearing activity was reduced in male but not female offspring either when tested over a 24 hour period in a home cage environment or during a 10 minute exposure in an open field. Horizontal locomotor activity was reduced only during the first 5 minutes in the open field and again the effect was found only in the males. Baseline plasma corticosterone levels were reduced in both male and female offspring but there was no effect on stress-elevated corticosterone levels.     

Dyphenylhydantoin enhancement of diazepam effects on locomotor activity in mice

The interaction of diazepam and diphenylhydantoin on locomotor activity and rearing behavior was studied in mice. Pretreatment of mice with diphenylhydantoin (4.0 and 8.0 mg/kg) significantly reversed the stimulatory effects of low doses of diazepam and considerably increased the depressant effects of the benzodiazepine on locomotor activity and rearing. Neither diazepam (up to 4.0 mg/kg), diphenylhydantoin (8.0 mg/kg) alone, nor combined treatment with both drugs affected brain GABA levels and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activity at any dosage used. The present behavioral and biochemical data suggests that some of the pharmacological effects of diazepam need not be related to GABAergic mechanisms.     

GR 127935 reduces basal locomotor activity and prevents RU 24969-, but not D-amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion, in the Wistar-Kyoto Hyperactive (WKHA) rat

The hyperlocomotor effect of the serotonin (5-HT)_1A,B receptor agonist 5-methoxy-3-(1,2,3,6-tetrahydro-4-pyridinyl)-1H-indole (RU 24969) has been repeatedly reported. However, 5-HT_1A receptors, 5-HT_1B receptors (or both) have been claimed to mediate this effect of RU 24969. These contradictory data possibly arise from protocol differences, especially those related to animal species, drugs, and activity assessment. Herein, the influence of a pretreatment with the selective 5-HT_1B,D receptor antagonist N-[4-methoxy-3-(4-methyl-1-piperazinyl)phenyl]-2′-methyl-4′-(5-methyl-1,2,4-oxadiozol-3-yl)-biphenyl-4-carboxamide (GR 127935; 1, 3.3 and 10 mg/kg IP) on the hyperlocomotor effect of a 5 mg/kg (IP) dose of RU 24969 was studied in Wistar-Kyoto Hyperactive (WKHA) rats. In a first series of experiments, it was confirmed that RU 24969 (2.5 and 5 mg/kg), administered 10 min after the onset of activity recordings, increases locomotion dose-dependently (cage crossings). In a second series of experiments, administration of GR 127935 10 min after the onset of activity recordings promoted a dose-dependent decrease in basal activity (and rearings) and prevented (3.3 and 10 mg/kg) RU 24969-elicited locomotor activity. On the other hand, GR 127935 was ineffective against RU 24969-induced inhibition of rearings. Lastly, it was observed that 3.3 mg/kg GR 127935 did not affect the number of cage crossings and rearings displayed by rats administered 1.5 mg/kg D-amphetamine. This study shows that 5-HT_1B receptors play a major role in the hyperlocomotor effect of RU 24969, at least under our experimental setting. Whether these receptors also play a tonic role in the high locomotor activity displayed by WKHA rats remains to be determined. Received: 11 May 1998/Final version: 3 July 1998     

Evidence that electrolytic median raphe lesions increase locomotion but not exploration

Electrolytic lesions of the median raphe nucleus were found to increase locomotion but decrease rearing in the open field. Additionally, these lesions reduced the amount of time that rats spent sniffing at a novel object placed in the open field on their first encounter with it. In a test of exploratory behavior in a T-maze, median raphe lesions eliminated the preference for entering a novel arm displayed by sham operated animals. These results suggest that, although median raphe lesions increase locomotion, they may actually decrease exploration.     

初中生应对方式与生活事件、父母养育方式的相关研究

目的探讨初中生应对方式与其生活事件、父母教养方式之间的关系。方法采用应对方式问卷、青少年生活事件量表、父母养育方式评价量表对200名中学生进行测查。结果1.初中生运用不同应对因子由多到少依次为:解决问题、幻想、自责、合理化、求助、退避。在应对方式上“自责”“合理化”与其它因子存在显著的性别差异。2.不同的生活事件和不同的教养方式与应对方式之间存在显著的差异,并且不成熟的应对方式还普遍存在。结论当前初中生的应对方式呈现复杂的多元化。他们需要应对方式的指导和帮助。     

Effects of social deprivation in prepubescent rhesus monkeys: immunohistochemical analysis of the neurofilament protein triplet in the hippocampal formation

Social deprivation during early postnatal life has profound and long-lasting effects on the behavior of primates, including prolonged and exaggerated responses to stress as well as impaired performance on a variety of learning tasks. Although the cellular changes that underlie such alterations in behavior are unknown, environmentally induced psychopathology may involve morphologic or biochemical changes in select neuronal populations. The hippocampal formation of both socially deprived and socially reared prepubescent rhesus monkeys was selected for immunocytochemical investigation because of its association with the behavioral stress response and learning. Immunocytochemical analysis using antibodies specific for the neurofilament protein triplet was performed since these proteins are modified within degenerating neurons in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders. Results from optical density measurements indicate an increase in the intensity of non-phosphorylated neurofilament protein immunoreactivity in the dentate gyrus granule cell layer of socially deprived monkeys in comparison with that of socially reared animals, suggesting that early social deprivation may result in an increase in the amount of non-phosphorylated neurofilament protein in these cells. This phenotypic difference in dentate granule cells between differentially reared monkeys supports the notion that specific subpopulations of neurons in brain regions that subserve complex behaviors may undergo long-term modifications induced by environmental conditions. Furthermore, the data suggest that constitutive chemical components related to structural integrity may be as susceptible to early environmental manipulations as the more traditionally viewed measures of cellular perturbations, such as neurotransmitter dynamics, cell density and the establishment of connectivity. The observed modifications may serve as an anatomical substrate for behavioral abnormalities that persist in later life.     

Brain NPY Y1 receptors rapidly mediate the behavioral response to novelty and a compartment-specific modulation of granulocyte function in blood and spleen

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) alters behavioral activity and innate immune functions of rats within minutes of intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) application. Using combinations of the Y_1–5a,b(6) agonist NPY, the Y_1,3,5 agonist [Leu³¹-Pro³⁴]NPY (LP-NPY), and the selective Y₁ antagonist BIBP3226 (BIBP), we investigated whether the NPY-Y₁ receptor (Y1R) subtype regulates NPY-induced behavioral and immunological effects at 15 min after i.c.v. application. Administration of both NPY and LP-NPY decreased rearing activity in the open field and suppressed granulocyte function in the blood. These effects were blocked by BIBP pre-treatment. In contrast to the blood, NPY and BIBP+NPY treatments stimulated granulocyte function within the splenic compartment. In addition, a blood leukophilia composed of granulocytes and NK cells was induced by NPY only. We conclude that the tested early effects of NPY are mediated by either the Y1R (rearing, blood granulocyte function), or a non-Y1R (splenic granulocyte function), or by a combined receptor activation (leukocyte mobilization). Furthermore, the immunological effects of NPY demonstrate compartment specificity.