The authors investigated the association between maternal psychological and fetal neurobehavioral functioning. Data were provided by 52 maternal-fetal pairs at 24, 30, and 36 weeks gestation. The relations between maternal measures and fetal heart rate, variability, and motor activity were statistically modeled. Fetuses of women who were more affectively intense, appraised their lives as more stressful, and reported more frequent pregnancy-specific hassles were more active across gestation. Fetuses of women who perceived their pregnancy to be more intensely and frequently uplifting and had positive emotional valence toward pregnancy were less active. Associations with fetal heart-rate measures were detected at 36 weeks gestation. These data provide evidence for proximal effects of maternal psychological functioning on fetal neurobehavior.

The ontogeny of fetal autonomic, motoric, state, and interactive functioning was investigated longitudinally in a sample of 31 healthy fetuses from 20 weeks through term. Fetal heart rate and movement data were collected during 50 min of doppler-based fetal monitoring at 6 gestational ages. Measures of fetal heart rate and variability, activity level and vigor, behavioral state, and reactivity were derived from these digitized data. Weighted least squares analyses were conducted to model the developmental patterns and to examine the role of maternal and fetal covariates. With advancing gestation, fetuses displayed slower heart rate, increased heart rate variability, reduced but more vigorous motor behavior, coalescence of heart rate and movement patterns into distinct behavioral states, and increasing cardiac responsivity to stimulation. Male fetuses were more active than female fetuses, and greater maternal stress appraisal was associated with reduced fetal heart variability. An apparent period of neurobehavioral transition exists between 28 and 32 weeks. Fetal research methods are evaluated.

No abstract

In addition to student learning, positive student attitudes have become an important course outcome for many introductory statistics instructors. To adequately assess changes in mean attitudes across introductory statistics courses, the attitude instruments used should be invariant by administration time. Attitudes toward statistics from 4,910 students enrolled in an introductory statistics course were measured using the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) both at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Confirmatory factor analysis on the covariance structure was used to determine the gender and time invariance properties of the SATS. Results indicate that the SATS is gender, time, and Gender × Time invariant with respect to factor loadings and factor correlations. Gender was invariant with respect to 3 of the 4 factor variances; variances from these same 3 factors were larger at the end than at the beginning of the course. Having established that the SATS is factorially invariant with respect to gender, time, and Gender × Time, its component scores can be used appropriately to examine mean attitude differences for these 2 variables and their interaction.

No abstract