Born unwanted. Observations from the Prague Study.

The authors followed 220 children born in 1961-1963 to women twice denied abortion for the same pregnancy in Prague (Czech Republic) and 220 pair-matched controls, whose mothers were pair-matched for age and socioeconomic status and the partner's presence in the home. They were medically, psychologically, and socially assessed at ages 9, 14-16, 21-23, 30, and 35. Although differences in psychosocial development between the unwanted study participants and pair-matched controls were not dramatic and changed over time, the differences were consistently in disfavor of the unwanted pregnancy participants.

The mental health of adults born of unwanted pregnancies, their siblings, and matched controls: a 35-year follow-up study from Prague, Czech Republic.

This study tested the hypothesis that being born of an unwanted pregnancy is a risk factor for poor mental health in adulthood. Self-report and objective data were collected at ages 28 to 31 and 32 to 35 years in a cohort of nearly 200 "unwanted" subjects born after their mothers had been twice denied an abortion for the same pregnancy. The same data were collected in a sociodemographically matched control cohort of "accepted" subjects whose mothers had not requested an abortion, and from siblings of both the unwanted subjects and the accepted control subjects.

IQ and personality traits assessed in childhood as predictors of drinking and smoking behaviour in middle-aged adults: a 24-year follow-up study.

Aims: The identification of childhood personality predictors of drinking and smoking behaviour in adults.

Design: A 24-year follow-up study.

Setting: Prague, the Czech Republic.

Children from unwanted pregnancies in Prague, Czech Republic revisited at age thirty.

The results of the fourth wave of the Prague Study of subjects born of unwanted pregnancies (UP) are reported. Of these young adults, 190 were examined at age 30 together with pair-matched control subjects born of accepted pregnancies (AP). Siblings of both UP and AP subjects were also examined.

Mental and social problems of families with handicapped child.

Studies were carried out in a series of 100 mothers of children with facial clefts who were treated up to the age of 13 to 15 years at the Department for Plastic Surgery. Clefts were used as a model situation for studies into the response of parents--and especially of mothers--to the birth of a child with an inborn malformation. The main results showed: that three quarters of mothers designated the birth of a handicapped child as a mental shock followed by a variety of neurotic symptoms.

[Psychological and social stress in children with cleft lip and palate].

Unlabelled: The authors analyzed representative data on the increase of inborn developmental defects in Czechoslovakia; in 1970-1980 the increment was + 50%. Inborn developmental defects are studied from the psychiatric aspect as a stimulus causing a reaction of the family to the breakdown of their parenteral expectations of a healthy child and the problem of continuation of the family. The reaction of the mothers is usually post-partum depression and impaired development of attachment to the child.

[Psychological and social problems in families with children with congenital defects].

The authors investigated a group of 109 mothers whose children with a cleft (dg. 749) were up to the age of 13-15 years in the care of the Clinic of Plastic Surgery. The cleft served as a model situation for investigation of the parents' reaction, in particular the mother's reaction, to the birth of the child with a developmental defect.

[Epidemiologic study of symptoms of minimal brain dysfunction. 1. Design and testing of methods--the incidence of symptoms in the study group].

The authors inform on the elaboration of a screening method for recording of symptoms of minimal brain dysfunction and its initial verification in the research problem "Incidence of signs of minimal brain dysfunctions in children in the North Bohemian region". In the first stage a population group of children in the second form of primary school in three districts was examined, a total of 5080 children, and data were assembled from their 9000 parents. The authors describe the elaboration of the method which comprises rating scales which evaluate specific striking features in the behaviour, dysfunction in school skills (the forms were completed by teachers and mothers) and performance tests administered by the children themselves.

[Incidence of the minimal brain dysfunction syndrome in children].

The paper explains the social need of epidemiological research of the incidence of behavioural and learning disorders associated with the syndrome of minimal brain dysfunction (MBD). The authors draw attention to the continuous incidence of various inborn developmental defects in the population from very severe to mild ones and provide evidence of it on the basis of research in behavioural teratology. They discuss the possible relationship of MBD with psychosocial and chemical influences.

Follow-up study of children born to women denied abortion.

Two hundred and twenty children born in Prague in 1961-63, whose mothers had applied twice for abortion and were refused twice, were matched with children born from accepted pregnancies. The findings when the children were about nine years of age revealed some important differences unfavourable to 'unwanted children'. Boys were significantly more afflicted than girls.

Children born to women denied abortion.

'Compulsory childbearing has varied and sometimes unfavorable consequences for the subsequent life of the child...