The frequency of otitis media among 22 hyperactive children with learning disorders was compared with the frequency of otitis media in a sample of 772 normal children, using the same criteria for the diagnosis of otitis media in both groups. The groups were matched for social class and age when studied (7 to 13 yr. of age). A significantly higher percentage of hyperactive children (54%) had more than 6 episodes of otitis media than was found in the normal group (15%). Thirty-six % of hyperactive children had more than 10 episodes compared to 5% in the normal sample. There was no difference in the percentage of children with no episodes of otitis media (18%). Several alternative hypotheses are offered as possible mechanisms to account for these data.
Twenty-four goat mothers were separated from their newborn kids for 1 hour immediately following birth. Two months later these mothers were observed to nurse their own kids less and alien kids more than nonseparated mothers. Separation of mother and young in half the flock also resulted in abnormal "rejecting" behavior in some nonseparated mothers.
Patterns of mother-infant interaction in families where mothering is provided by only one person (monomatric) or by more than one person (polymatric) are compared. A closer emotional attachment was found in the monomatric fam ilies. There was evidence that this may have been influenced by prenatal personality factors as well as by the exclusiveness of the postnatal mother infant diad.
Severe social and sensory isolation of many different species of animals during the early periods of growth and development results in profound and lasting effects on behavior. What are the effects of maternal deprivation alone, controlling for other social and sensory deprivation? Five goat kids were separated from their mothers at 3 days of age and were reared together but apart from all other animals until 6 months of age. They were bottle fed on cow's milk until weaning. Compared with normally reared animals the mother-deprived group were more emotional, more readily conditioned to classical aversive stimuli, less dominant, and had higher heart and respiration rates. At 18 months of age, after the females had kids of their own, no differences were found in maternal behavior.
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