Parental stress and toddler behaviour at age 18 months after pre-term birth

• AIM: To describe the parent's judgement of their own stress and the child's behaviour at 18 months after pre-term birth and if there are any correlations between these assessments, the morbidity in the neonatal period, the gestational age at birth and the occurrence of twin/triplet births. METHOD: Twenty-one mothers and 19 fathers of pre-term infants answered two questionnaires, The Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ) and The Toddler Behaviour Questionnaire (TBQ). RESULTS: Mothers scored somewhat higher than fathers concerning parental stress. Parents with twins/triplets and of children born in gestational week 25-30 felt more stress, though the differences were not statistically significant. High-risk diagnoses did not correlate to any of the dimensions. The parents judged the behaviour of the children similar except that parents of children born in gestational week 25-30 scored significantly higher for intensity/activity (p = 0.002). The correlation between parental stress and judgement of their children's behaviour did not show any significant association except for the dimension regularity in TBQ (p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: The mothers' and fathers' assessments of their own stress and of the children's behaviour were similar. Parents of very pre-term children felt more stress and judged the children somewhat delayed in their social behaviours, probably due to their low gestational age.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Pediatrik (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Pediatrics (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Parental stress;Pre-term infant;Toddler behaviour

Pediatrik

Pediatrics

Caring Sciences w. Medical Focus

Omvårdnadsforskning med medicinsk inriktning

Caring sciences

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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