The prevalence of loneliness increased from 1991 to 2014. The social inequality in loneliness decreased in both absolute and relative terms because of a rising prevalence of loneliness among children from high OSC.

Background: Experiencing parental stress is common among parents of children of all ages and is elevated in families characterized by stressors such as poverty, mental health problems, and developmental problems. The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) is a short measure for the assessment of perceived stress resulting from being a parent. Methods: This study examines the construct validity and psychometric properties of the Danish PSS using Rasch and graphical loglinear Rasch models in a sample of parents of 2-18-year-old children with and without known behavior problems. We emphasized analyses of differential item functioning, to ascertain whether the scale yields unbiased scores for subgroups of parents. Results: The 18-item PSS did not fit the Rasch model or a graphical loglinear Rasch model. After dichotomizing item responses and eliminating items 2 and 11, we found the PSS to consist of two distinct subscales measuring parental stress and lack of parental satisfaction. For the total sample, the Parental Stress subscale fit a very complex graphical loglinear Rasch model with differential item functioning relative to parental education and whether children had behavior problems or not. The Lack of Parental Satisfaction subscale fit a simple graphical loglinear Rasch model with differential item functioning only relative to subsample. When dividing into subsamples of parents of children with and without behavior problems, the Parental Stress subscale fit a simple graphical loglinear Rasch model, though still with differential item functioning, while the Lack of Parental Satisfaction subscale fit the Rasch model in each subsample of parents. Both subscales performed best for parents of children with behavior problems. Conclusions: The PSS should be used in a 16-item version and scored as two subscales. The PSS appears better suited for use among parents of children with behavior problems than within a sample without any known difficulties.

ObjectivesInfancy is a critical stage of life, and a secure relationship with caring and responsive caregivers is crucial for healthy infant development. Early parenting interventions aim to support families in which infants are at risk of developmental harm. Our objective is to systematically review the effects of parenting interventions on child development and on parent–child relationship for at-risk families with infants aged 0–12 months.DesignThis is a systematic review and meta-analyses. We extracted publications from 10 databases in June 2013, January 2015 and June 2016, and supplemented with grey literature and hand search. We assessed risk of bias, calculated effect sizes and conducted meta-analyses.Inclusion criteria(1) Randomised controlled trials of structured psychosocial interventions offered to at-risk families with infants aged 0–12 months in Western Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, (2) interventions with a minimum of three sessions and at least half of these delivered postnatally and (3) outcomes reported for child development or parent–child relationship.ResultsSixteen studies were included. Meta-analyses were conducted on seven outcomes represented in 13 studies. Parenting interventions significantly improved child behaviour (d=0.14; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.26), parent–child relationship (d=0.44; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.80) and maternal sensitivity (d=0.46; 95% CI 0.26 to 0.65) postintervention. There were no significant effects on cognitive development (d=0.13; 95% CI −0.08 to 0.41), internalising behaviour (d=0.16; 95% CI −0.03 to 0.33) or externalising behaviour (d=0.16; 95% CI −0.01 to 0.30) post-intervention. At long-term follow-up we found no significant effect on child behaviour (d=0.15; 95% CI −0.03 to 0.31).ConclusionsInterventions offered to at-risk families in the first year of the child’s life appear to improve child behaviour, parent–child relationship and maternal sensitivity post-intervention, but not child cognitive development and internalising or externalising behaviour. Future studies should incorporate follow-up assessments to examine long-term effects of early interventions.

More children from lower social backgrounds are physically inactive than those from higher ones. We studied whether bullying was a mediating factor between lower social background and physical inactivity. We also examined the combined effect of low social class and exposure to bullying on physical inactivity. The Danish sample of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study 2006 included 6269 schoolchildren in three age groups: 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds from a random sample of 80 schools. The students answered the internationally standardized HBSC questionnaire. The applied definition leaves 4.0% in the category physically inactive. The sex and age-adjusted OR (95% CI) for physical inactivity was 2.10 (1.39-3.18) among students with low social class and unclassifiable 3.53 (2.26-5.53). Exposure to bullying was associated with physical inactivity, sex and age-adjusted OR = 2.39 (1.67-3.41). Exposure to bullying did not explain the association between social class and physical inactivity. The association between social class and physical inactivity was more pronounced among participants also exposed to bullying. In conclusion, there was a significantly increased odds ratio for physical inactivity among students from lower social classes and for students exposed to bullying. There was a combined effect of low social class and bullying on physical inactivity.

Objective − This paper aims to quantify and compare health care usage among children and adults with and without cerebral palsy (CP). Materials and Methods − A population-based study using public registries with follow-up of children and adults. Persons with CP born from 1950 to 2003 were identified in the Danish Cerebral Palsy Registry (4235 persons). Persons without CP were selected randomly from the Danish Civil Registration System and matched by birth year and gender (22,351 persons). Hospitalizations, visits to specialists, general practitioners and emergency health services were analysed. Children were born 1995-2003 and monitored until 2012 (1996-2012). Adults were born 1950-1985 and monitored for ten years (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012). Results − Significantly fewer adults with CP visited specialists compared with children with CP. At the same time, the differences in use of general practitioners and between persons with and without CP were smaller in adulthood compared to childhood. Persons with CP and the most severe impairments had an unexpected low frequency of acute admissions compared with children with CP. We did not find a high use of acute contact with the health care system among adults with CP. Conclusion − If acute contacts with the health care system could be assumed to be a direct measurement of serious illness, this study does not identify a larger risk of serious illness in adults with CP, but other factors, such as reduced access to the acute health care system may, however, also be a reason for the lower use in adulthood.