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Biomedical subjects

P A Mahalski

Publications and source records attributed to P A Mahalski.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The relationship between digit sucking and behaviour problems: a longitudinal study over 10 years.

Data from the Dunedin (New Zealand) Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study were used to examine continuity and discontinuity in digit sucking between 5 and 11 years. The data were also used to examine the relationship between digit sucking and behaviour problems at 5, 7, 9, 11 and 15 years. Cross-sectional analyses showed a relationship between digit sucking and behaviour problems at all ages, except 5 years. Longitudinal analysis by multiple regression showed that digit sucking at 5 and 7 years predicted behaviour problems at 7, 9 and 11 years. This effect was most apparent at 7 years. Children who sucked their digits at 11 years were more likely to have overjets of 6mm or more between their upper and lower dental arches. The behavioural and dental evidence suggest that it would be better for children to stop sucking their digits before they started school and acquired their permanent dentition.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

The value of cat ownership to elderly women living alone.

A survey of elderly women was carried out to discover their attitudes towards pet cats. The women were living in publicly-owned pensioner housing in two New Zealand cities. In one city cats were allowed in the pensioners' housing and in the other city they were not. Attitudes towards cats were more positive in the city where cats were allowed, and more positive if pensioners owned a cat, or wished to own one. As positive attitudes towards cats outweighed negative ones, the City Authority which had prohibited cats reversed its policy. There was conflicting evidence about the role of cats in reducing feelings of loneliness. It appears that "loneliness" signifies the loss of many aspects of social interaction and that pets may substitute for only some of these interactions.

Aged↗
PubMed1982

Persistent infant comfort habits and their sequelae at 11 and 16 years.

This paper examines whether relationships can be demonstrated between specific infantile comfort habits and later personality development. Indications of aspects of personality at 11 and 16 yr were derived from structured, but open-ended, interviews with the children's mothers. Some reliable statistical associations are shown, and these are maintained even when allowance is made for sex, social class and family size differences in the two samples. They suggest that children with a persistent oral habit at 4 yr may later be less 'well-adjusted' emotionally and more difficult for their parents to influence and control than other children. Possible interpretations are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Reasons for smoking or not smoking in early adolescence.

Previous studies of smokers' and nonsmokers' reasons have not compared their reasons for smoking and their reasons for not smoking, or examined the extent of change or stability in these reasons over time. We examined reasons for smoking and not smoking in a large sample of 13-year-olds from the general population. Factor structures of reasons differed according to whether adolescents were smokers or nonsmokers. Nonsmokers were found to be less discriminating than smokers about the reasons for smoking. Smokers and nonsmokers tended to show more agreement about the reasons for not smoking. Recency of smoking was differentially related to the factors for smoking and the factors for not smoking. "Image" was a more important reason for smoking at age 11 than at age 13. "Friends" as a reason for smoking showed a small degree of consistency across age, whereas reasons involving relaxation and pleasure showed a relatively higher degree of consistency. Health, as a reason not to smoke, showed only a small degree of consistency, while social context, effects and access were moderately consistent as reasons not to smoke at ages 11 and 13.

Adolescent↗