A life history approach to prenatal supplementation: Building a bridge from biological anthropology to public health and nutrition

Despite public health efforts to decrease risk of cardiovascular disease by promoting healthier dietary patterns, Americans persistently under-consume vegetables. Discovering feasible, achievable strategies to increase vegetable intake can contribute to improved dietary patterns and health outcomes. Tomatoes are the most consumed non-starchy vegetable in the US and also contribute the greatest porportion of vegetables to the USDA Food Pattern (MyPlate). Despite tomatoes’ dietary importance, little is known about tomato consumption by form. Tomato forms and amounts consumed in the US were determined by examining the intakes of adults 19 years and older (n = 16,252) in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-06, 2007-08, and 2009-10. The forms of tomatoes in foods participants reported were divided into two categories: tomato products and raw. Foods containing tomato products were further divided into four subgroups: 1) canned tomatoes as main ingredients, 2) canned tomatoes as minor ingredients, 3) juice and 4) condiments. Tomato products comprised approximately 63% of total tomato consumption, primarily as main ingredients (33%) of foods such as pasta with tomato sauce, with smaller amounts contributed from minor ingredients (12%), condiments (10%) and juice (7%). Raw tomatoes accounted for the remaining 37%. Participants who consumed the most tomatoes, defined as those who met or exceeded the MyPlate tomato target amount (0.65 cup equivalents/d), consumed 67% of their tomatoes as tomato products and 33% as raw. These heavy tomato consumers’ total vegetable intake was 2.48 cup equivalents/d, which approximated the 2.5 cup equivalent MyPlate total vegetable target amount. Increasing the awareness and importance of the contribution of tomato intake by form, and the relationship between tomato intake and total vegetable intake targets can inform future strategies to achieve greater vegetable intake and thus improve dietary patterns for Americans.

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The effect of childhood unpredictability on co-parenting relationships during the transition to parenthood: A life history approach

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ◽

10.1177/0265407520918670 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 37 (8-9) ◽

pp. 2438-2458

Author(s):

Ohad Szepsenwol

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Early Life ◽

Life History Theory ◽

Transition To Parenthood ◽

Life Experiences ◽

Parental Behaviors ◽

Childhood Socioeconomic Status ◽

Environmental Unpredictability ◽

History Approach

Recent extensions to life history theory posit that exposure to environmental unpredictability during childhood should forecast negative parental behaviors in adulthood. In the current research, this logic was extended to co-parental behaviors, which refer to how parents coordinate, share responsibility, and support each other’s parental efforts. The effects of early-life unpredictability on individual and dyadic co-parental functioning were examined in a sample of 109 families (two parents and their firstborn child) who were followed longitudinally from before the child’s birth until the age of two. Greater early-life unpredictability (family changes, residential changes, and parents’ occupational changes by age 8) experienced by mothers, but not fathers, predicted more negative co-parental behaviors in triadic observations 6 months post birth, and lower couple-reported co-parenting quality assessed 3, 9, 18, and 24 months post birth. These effects were not explained by parents’ childhood socioeconomic status or current relationship quality. These findings highlight the role of mothers in shaping co-parenting relationships and how these relationships might be influenced by mothers’ early-life experiences.

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A life history approach to stature and body proportions in medieval Danes

Anthropologischer Anzeiger ◽

10.1127/anthranz/2019/0951 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 77 (1) ◽

pp. 27-45

Author(s):

Julia A. Gamble

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Body Proportions ◽

History Approach

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Four Religious Education Teachers: Four Retrospective Career Trajectories

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel10080474 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 474

Author(s):

Juha Luodeslampi ◽

Arniika Kuusisto ◽

Arto Kallioniemi

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Religious Education ◽

Career Paths ◽

Life Histories ◽

Religious Life ◽

School Subject ◽

Written Narratives ◽

Lutheran Church ◽

Career Trajectories ◽

History Approach

This article examines the career paths of Finnish Religious Education (RE) teachers who were born in the 1930s, through a retrospective, self-autobiographical life history approach. The material reported here is a part of wider data of mainly written narratives (N = 62) from RE teachers who recount their career trajectories. In these career-focused life histories, the teachers outline their own professionalism as embedded in changing sociohistorical contexts, where to a great extent they tell about the active development of the school and the teaching of their particular subject to answer to the changing needs and challenges. Some teachers have, along with their teaching, also been actively involved in different communities or associations. Many of the Religious Education teachers here reflect on their career paths in relation to their profession as a teacher and often also with double qualifications as pastor trained theologians. At times, this constructs a possibility for tension between the roles of a teacher and that of a pastor, and in the perceptions of RE as a school subject and as something “preached” in the pulpit—some see their professionalism above all in relation to their religious life. This also includes a notable gender divide in the data, as at the time when these teachers gained their professional qualifications, it was only possible for men to be ordained in the Finnish Lutheran Church. Succeeding this, the male teachers in these data commonly have pastorhood as their first profession. For the purpose of this article, the career accounts of four teachers have been selected for further analysis, as they were perceived as telling examples of the wider material in terms of more or less typical career paths.

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