Father's Playbook: From Health Communication Research to Prenatal Health Intervention.

Research has demonstrated benefits of paternal involvement during the prenatal stage: increased prenatal visits, better adherence to postpartum best practices, and improved communication between partners. In the United States, where maternal morbidity remains higher than other advanced economies, the need for varied interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing of the entire family unit should remain a top priority. In an arena that is understandably dominated by interventions aimed at expectant mothers, scholars also advocate for including men in prenatal health care to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.

Missed opportunities for prenatal family-centered care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.

Background: The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of COVID-19 on fatherhood experiences during pregnancy.

Methods: A semi-structured interview guide was developed to collect qualitative data from fathers about their experiences in pregnancy and prenatal care, how they communicated with providers, strategies for information seeking, and social support they received during the pregnancy. One-time, virtual interviews were conducted via Zoom with fathers that were either expecting a baby or fathers who had a baby after March 2020 and were 18 years or older.

Qualitative Research to Describe Food Bank-Health Care Partnerships: What Types of Models are Currently Being Used to Facilitate Food Bank-Health Care Partnerships in Texas?

Background: Food banks and health care are being increasingly called on to partner together to support individuals and families experiencing food insecurity, yet few published works highlight descriptions of current food bank-health care partnerships.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify and describe food bank-health care partnerships, the impetus for development of partnerships, and challenges to sustainable partnerships within a single-state area.

Design: Qualitative data collection using semi-structured interviews was performed.

Web-Based Conversations Regarding Fathers Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Content Analysis.

Background: Studies of new and expecting parents largely focus on the mother, leaving a gap in knowledge about fathers.

Objective: This study aimed to understand web-based conversations regarding new and expecting fathers on social media and to explore whether the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the web-based conversation.

Methods: A social media analysis was conducted.

Validation of Self-Reported Attachment Classification Among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Parents of Young Children.

Background: The Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) was developed to measure individual differences in insecure adult attachment and was suitable for populations that may have minimal or no experience in romantic relationships. The measure was previously validated on homogenous populations.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to verify construct validity and internal consistency of the ASQ among an ethnically and racially diverse sample of caregivers of young children ages birth to 3 years.

Perinatal Health Profiles Associated With Removal From the Home and Subsequent Child Protective Services Report in Maltreated Infants.

Infants face the highest risk of abuse and neglect nationally. There is a compelling need to understand the individual risk factors and needs of families of maltreated infants so that prevention efforts can be tailored for optimal effectiveness. Using linked birth certificate and CPS records data, we employed latent class analysis to identify distinct profiles of perinatal health factors associated with infant maltreatment.

Opportunities and challenges for family-centered postpartum care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of nurse perspectives.

Background: The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced the health care sector to make wide-ranging changes to protect patients as well as providers from the risk of infection. Many of these changes are likely to have greatest impact in contexts of care that employ family-centered care (FCC) models, including perinatal and maternity care. Research conducted in perinatal care settings during the pandemic has shown that some of these restrictions have negatively impacted patient and family experiences and outcomes, while others have been perceived as beneficial.

Implementing food bank and healthcare partnerships: a pilot study of perspectives from charitable food systems in Texas.

Background: Partnerships between charitable food systems and healthcare systems have been forming across the country to support individuals and families experiencing food insecurity, yet little research has focused on these partnerships, particularly from a food bank perspective. The objective of this exploratory pilot study was to identify implementation challenges and facilitators of charitable food system and healthcare partnerships from the food bank perspective.

Method: Texas food banks with existing food bank/healthcare partnerships were identify through website review and support from Feeding Texas.

Mobile Apps as Audience-Centered Health Communication Platforms.

Health communication campaigns often suffer from the shortcomings of a limited budget and limited reach, resulting in a limited impact. This paper suggests a shift of these campaigns to audience-centered communication platforms-particularly, apps on mobile phones. By using a common platform, multiple interventions and campaigns can combine resources and increase user engagement, resulting in a larger impact on health behavior.

NICU and postpartum nurse perspectives on involving fathers in newborn care: a qualitative study.

Background: Perinatal care nurses are well positioned to provide the education and support new fathers need to navigate the transition to fatherhood and to encourage positive father involvement from the earliest hours of a child's life. To effectively serve fathers in perinatal settings, it is important to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of healthcare providers that may encourage and engage them, or alternatively alienate and discourage them.

Methods: This qualitative study involved structured interviews with ten NICU and postpartum nurses from hospitals in two large Texas cities.

Trends in Abusive and Nonabusive Injury Hospitalizations in Young Children in Texas, 2004-2018.

Hospitalization data provide context to understanding abusive and non-abusive injuries and how these hospitalizations change over time. The purpose of this study was to utilize Texas inpatient hospitalization data to assess age-related differences among infants (<12 months of age) and toddlers (12-59 months of age) in injury trends and patterns of injury among abusive and non-abusive hospitalization encounters over a 15-year time period. For both age groups, pediatric hospitalizations for non-abusive injuries decreased significantly over time; however, hospitalizations for abusive injuries did not.

The prenatal triad: The importance of provider-patient communication with expectant fathers throughout the prenatal care process.

Previous research has primarily focused on the relationship between providers and expectant mothers as a key element of quality prenatal care. Significantly less attention has been directed toward expectant fathers and the importance of their communication with prenatal care providers and involvement in the prenatal care process. Much of this limited existing literature emphasizes the health benefits including fathers would bring for mom and baby, but rarely is the potential benefit to fathers' health included in the conversation.

The association between newborn screening analytes as measured on a second screen and childhood autism in a Texas Medicaid population.

Autism (or autism spectrum disorder [ASD]) is an often disabling childhood neurologic condition of mostly unknown cause. We previously explored whether there was an association of ASD with any analyte measured in the first newborn screening blood test. Here we explore the second screen.

Maternal comorbidity index and severe maternal morbidity during delivery hospitalizations in Texas, 2011-2014.

Background: Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) prevalence was 194.0 per 10 000 deliveries in Texas in 2015. Chronic, behavioral, and pregnancy-induced conditions, as captured by a maternal comorbidity index, increase the risk for delivery-related morbidity and mortality.

Paternity establishment at birth and early maltreatment: Risk and protective effects by maternal race and ethnicity.

Background: Minority race/ethnicity, low socioeconomic status, and lack of established paternity have been identified in previous research as risk factors for child maltreatment. However, given vastly different patterns of income distribution, single parenting and co-parenting across racial and ethnic populations, it is difficult to know which of these factors contribute most to maltreatment risk.

Objective: The current study explores whether the odds of maltreatment differ across race/ethnicity when paternity is not established at birth after controlling for maternal socioeconomic status.

The association between newborn screening analytes and childhood autism in a Texas Medicaid population, 2010-2012.

Autism (or autism spectrum disorder [ASD]) is an often disabling childhood neurologic condition of mostly unknown cause. It is commonly diagnosed at 3 or 4 years of age. We explored whether there was an association of any analytes measured by newborn screening tests with a later diagnosis of ASD.

Maternal risk factor index and cesarean delivery among women with nulliparous, term, singleton, vertex deliveries, Texas, 2015.

Background: Cesarean delivery accounts for over one-third of the ~400 000 annual births in Texas, with first-time cesarean accounting for 20% of the overall cesareans. We examined associations of maternal medical comorbidities with cesarean delivery among nulliparous, term, singleton, vertex (NTSV) deliveries in Texas.

Methods: Nulliparous, term, singleton, vertex deliveries to women aged 15-49 years were identified using the 2015 Texas birth file (Center for Health Statistics, Texas Department of State Health Services).

Parental negative emotions are related to behavioral and pupillary correlates of infants' attention to facial expressions of emotion.

Previous evidence revealed links between maternal negative emotions and infants' attention to facial expressions of emotion in clinical and community samples. This study investigated the associations between infants' attention to emotional faces and infants' and parents' negative emotions in a community sample. Infants' (N = 57, M = 14.

Perceived Weight and Bullying Victimization in Boys and Girls.

Background: Research suggests that perceived weight poses separate risks from objective weight on adolescents' risks of being bullied. We examined if the prevalence of bullying victimization differed by perceived and objective weight status, and how these associations varied by sex.

Methods: Data were analyzed for 6716 8th and 11th graders from the School Physical Activity and Nutrition project, a Texas statewide survey of public school students.

Infants' Temperament and Mothers', and Fathers' Depression Predict Infants' Attention to Objects Paired with Emotional Faces.

Between 10 and 14 months, infants gain the ability to learn about unfamiliar stimuli by observing others' emotional reactions to those stimuli, so called social referencing (SR). Joint processing of emotion and head/gaze direction is essential for SR. This study tested emotion and head/gaze direction effects on infants' attention via pupillometry in the period following the emergence of SR.

Measuring the bias, precision, accuracy, and validity of self-reported height and weight in assessing overweight and obesity status among adolescents using a surveillance system.

Background: Evidence regarding bias, precision, and accuracy in adolescent self-reported height and weight across demographic subpopulations is lacking. The bias, precision, and accuracy of adolescent self-reported height and weight across subpopulations were examined using a large, diverse and representative sample of adolescents. A second objective was to develop correction equations for self-reported height and weight to provide more accurate estimates of body mass index (BMI) and weight status.

Examination of the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model: assessments of neurodevelopment, learning, and social behavior.

Background: In the 1990s, the mercury-based preservative thimerosal was used in most pediatric vaccines. Although there are currently only two thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) recommended for pediatric use, parental perceptions that vaccines pose safety concerns are affecting vaccination rates, particularly in light of the much expanded and more complex schedule in place today.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model.

Learning Stimulus-Location Associations in 8- and 11-Month-Old Infants: Multimodal versus Unimodal Information.

Research on the influence of multimodal information on infants' learning is inconclusive. While one line of research finds that multimodal input has a negative effect on learning, another finds positive effects. The present study aims to shed some new light on this discussion by studying the influence of multimodal information and accompanying stimulus complexity on the learning process.

Using a single feature to discriminate and form categories: the interaction between color, form and exemplar number.

There is relatively little work that has focused on how infants use a single feature to discriminate objects or flexibly group objects together. Existing research suggests that the ease with which infants learn form and color discriminations is not equal. However, which of these dimensions is easier when discriminating between objects is still unclear.