Emma Fransson

Last updated
Emma Fransson
NationalitySwedish
EducationPh.D.
Alma mater Karolinska Institute
Known for Shared parenting, Stress during pregnancy
Scientific career
Institutions Karolinska Institute, Stockholm University,Uppsala University
Thesis Preterm birth : parents' experiences, affect, stress and inflammatory markers  (2012)

Emma Fransson is a child psychologist and epidemiologist at Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Her expertise is in the health and social implication of shared parenting arrangements on children after their parents are divorced. She has also studied the effects of stress during pregnancy.

Contents

Education

Fransson studied psychology at Stockholm University, Sweden, graduating in 2004. In 2012, she obtained her Ph.D. in medical sciences from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. [1]

Scientific research

Fransson was a co-lead investigator on the Elvis project at the Center for Health Equity Studies, jointly run by Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute between 2011 - 2021. In this project, children were followed after their parents had divorced or separated, with various physical and mental health outcomes measured, as well as social and behavioral metrics. In this project, Fransson showed that the well-being of children is higher under shared parenting versus sole custody. [2]

Fransson was also a co-lead investigator for the BASIC (Biology, Affect, Stress, Imaging, and Cognition) study conducted at Uppsala University between 2009 - 2018 [3] and is currently involved with the Mom2B study, also at Uppsala University.

Media attention

Her research on shared parenting has been cited by The Guardian, when she found the same level of psychological complaints in children in shared residency as in those in nuclear families, while children living with one parent had higher levels of psychological complaints. [4] Her research has also been covered by Diritto & Diritti in Italy, [5] ABC Nyheter in Norway, [6] Extra Bladet in Denmark, [7] Wiener Zeitung in Austria, [8] Svenska Dagbladet in Sweden, [9] and Observador in Portugal. [10]

Bibliography (selected)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infant mortality</span> Death of children under the age of 1

Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births. Similarly, the child mortality rate, also known as the under-five mortality rate, compares the death rate of children up to the age of five.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childbirth</span> Expulsion of a fetus from the pregnant mothers uterus

Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million human births globally. In the developed countries, most deliveries occur in hospitals, while in the developing countries most are home births.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intrauterine growth restriction</span> Medical condition

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), or fetal growth restriction, is the poor growth of a fetus while in the womb during pregnancy. IUGR is defined by clinical features of malnutrition and evidence of reduced growth regardless of an infant's birth weight percentile. The causes of IUGR are broad and may involve maternal, fetal, or placental complications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postpartum depression</span> Mood disorder experienced after childbirth

Postpartum depression (PPD), also called postnatal depression, is a type of mood disorder experienced after childbirth, which can affect both sexes. Symptoms may include extreme sadness, low energy, anxiety, crying episodes, irritability, and changes in sleeping or eating patterns. PPD can also negatively affect the newborn child.

A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include decease, divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming widowed, domestic violence, rape, childbirth by a single person or single-person adoption. A single parent family is a family with children that is headed by a single parent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nils Bejerot</span> Swedish psychiatrist and criminologist (1921–1988)

Nils Johan Artur Bejerot was a Swedish psychiatrist and criminologist best known for his work on drug abuse and for coining the phrase Stockholm syndrome. Bejerot was one of the top drug abuse researchers in Sweden. His view that drug abuse was a criminal matter and that drug use should have severe penalties was highly influential in Sweden and in other countries. He believed that the cure for drug addiction was to make drugs unavailable and socially unacceptable. He also advocated the idea that drug abuse could transition from being a symptom to a disease in itself.

Shared parenting, shared residence, joint residence, shared custody, joint physical custody, equal parenting time (EPT) is a child custody arrangement after divorce or separation, in which both parents share the responsibility of raising their child(ren), with equal or close to equal parenting time. A regime of shared parenting is based on the idea that children have the right to and benefit from a close relationship with both their parents, and that no child should be separated from a parent.

Shared residence, joint residence, or shared parenting refers to the situation where a child of parents who have divorced or separated live with each parent at different times, such as every other week. With shared residency, both parents have parental responsibility. Shared residency does not mean that the time the child spends with each parent must be equal.

In obstetrics, gestational age is a measure of the age of a pregnancy taken from the beginning of the woman's last menstrual period (LMP), or the corresponding age of the gestation as estimated by a more accurate method, if available. Such methods include adding 14 days to a known duration since fertilization, or by obstetric ultrasonography. The popularity of using this measure of pregnancy is largely due to convenience: menstruation is usually noticed, while there is generally no convenient way to discern when fertilization or implantation occurred.

Prenatal development includes the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal development until birth.

Vivette Glover is a British Professor of Perinatal Psychobiology at Imperial College London. She studies the effects of stress in pregnancy on the development of the fetus and child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Schechter</span> American neuroscientist

Daniel S. Schechter is an American and Swiss psychiatrist known for his clinical work and research on intergenerational transmission or "communication" of violent trauma and related psychopathology involving parents and very young children. His published work in this area following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York of September 11, 2001 led to a co-edited book entitled "September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds" (2003) and additional original articles with clinical psychologist Susan Coates that were translated into multiple languages and remain among the first accounts of 9/11 related loss and trauma described by mental health professionals who also experienced the attacks and their aftermath Schechter observed that separation anxiety among infants and young children who had either lost or feared loss of their caregivers triggered posttraumatic stress symptoms in the surviving caregivers. These observations validated his prior work on the adverse impact of family violence on the early parent-child relationship, formative social-emotional development and related attachment disturbances involving mutual dysregulation of emotion and arousal. This body of work on trauma and attachment has been cited by prominent authors in the attachment theory, psychological trauma, developmental psychobiology and neuroscience literatures

Antenatal depression, also known as prenatal or perinatal depression, is a form of clinical depression that can affect a woman during pregnancy, and can be a precursor to postpartum depression if not properly treated. It is estimated that 7% to 20% of pregnant women are affected by this condition. Any form of prenatal stress felt by the mother can have negative effects on various aspects of fetal development, which can cause harm to the mother and child. Even after birth, a child born from a depressed or stressed mother feels the affects. The child is less active and can also experience emotional distress. Antenatal depression can be caused by the stress and worry that pregnancy can bring, but at a more severe level. Other triggers include unplanned pregnancy, difficulty becoming pregnant, history of abuse, and economic or family situations.

Mental disorders can be a consequence of miscarriage or early pregnancy loss. Even though women can develop long-term psychiatric symptoms after a miscarriage, acknowledging the potential of mental illness is not usually considered. A mental illness can develop in women who have experienced one or more miscarriages after the event or even years later. Some data suggest that men and women can be affected up to 15 years after the loss. Though recognized as a public health problem, studies investigating the mental health status of women following miscarriage are still lacking. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop in women who have experienced a miscarriage. Risks for developing PTSD after miscarriage include emotional pain, expressions of emotion, and low levels of social support. Even if relatively low levels of stress occur after the miscarriage, symptoms of PTSD including flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, dissociation and hyperarousal can later develop. Clinical depression also is associated with miscarriage. Past responses by clinicians have been to prescribe sedatives.

Resignation syndrome is a hypothesized condition that induces a state of reduced consciousness, not recognized by the World Health Organization as a valid psychiatric condition. It was first described in Sweden in the 1990s. The condition affects predominately psychologically traumatized children and adolescents in the midst of a strenuous and lengthy migration process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengt Robertson</span> Swedish physician

Bengt A. Robertson was a Swedish physician and perinatal pathologist. Robertson was primarily known for the development of the synthetic lung surfactant known as Corusurf that brought relief to very small babies suffering from infant respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). From 1974 to 2000 he was the director of the division for experimental perinatal pathology in the department of women and child Health at the Karolinska Institute.

Malin Bergström is a child psychologist and scientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a specialist in studies concerning the effect on children with different child custody arrangements after divorce or separation. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs, her research group has shown that children have better physical, mental and social outcomes if they live in a shared parenting arrangement compared to primarily living with only one parent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanna Ramel</span> Swedish actress (1920–2020)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breastfeeding and mental health</span>

Breastfeeding and mental health is the relationship between postpartum breastfeeding and the mother's and child's mental health. Research indicates breastfeeding may have positive effects on the mother's and child's mental health, though there have been conflicting studies that question the correlation and causation of breastfeeding and maternal mental health. Possible benefits include improved mood and stress levels in the mother, lower risk of postpartum depression, enhanced social emotional development in the child, stronger mother-child bonding and more. Given the benefits of breastfeeding, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission for Public Health (ECPH) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggest exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Despite these suggestions, estimates indicate 70% of mothers breastfeed their child after birth and 13.5% of infants in the United States are exclusively breastfed. Breastfeeding promotion and support for mothers who are experiencing difficulties or early cessation in breastfeeding is considered a health priority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Halliday (paediatrician)</span> British neonatologist (1945–2022)

Henry Lewis Halliday was a British-Irish paediatrician and neonatologist. In 2021, Halliday was awarded the James Spence Medal for research into neonatology, for coordinating two of the largest neonatal multicentre trials for prevention and treatment of a number of neonatal respiratory illnesses and for a breakthrough in the development of a new lung surfactant that brought relief to very small babies suffering from infant respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).

References

  1. Karolinska Institute, Emma Fransson
  2. See bibliography.
  3. Axfors, Cathrine; Bränn, Emma; Henriksson, Hanna E; Hellgren, Charlotte; Kunovac Kallak, Theodora; Fransson, Emma; Lager, Susanne; Iliadis, Stavros I; Sylvén, Sara; Papadopoulos, Fotios C; Ekselius, Lisa (October 2019). "Cohort profile: the Biology, Affect, Stress, Imaging and Cognition (BASIC) study on perinatal depression in a population-based Swedish cohort". BMJ Open. 9 (10): e031514. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031514. ISSN   2044-6055. PMC   6830667 . PMID   31641004.
  4. Luisa Dillner, Is sharing residency better for children’s mental health?, The Guardian, January 24, 2016.
  5. Maria Serenella Pignotti, Il protocollo di Brindisi o protocollo dei padri separati, Diritto & Diritti, July 28, 2017.
  6. Leni Aurora Brækhus, Skilsmissebarn med delt bosted har det bedre enn barn hos aleneforeldre, ABC Nyheter, January 31, 2017.
  7. Thomas Harder , Ny skilsmisseforskning: 7-7 ordning giver sundere børn, Extra Bladet, March 28, 2017.
  8. André Anwar, im Mutterleib, Wiener Zeitung, April 9, 2012.
  9. Mikaela Åkerman, Stress påverkar foster, Svenska Dagbladet, March 11, 2012.
  10. Ana Cristina Marques, Associação defensora da guarda partilhada agora assina carta aberta contra petição entregue no parlamento, Observador, July 18, 2018.