The birth of a child alters family dynamics and can be stressful for parents, especially in the case of prematurity. This article carried out a systematic review on interventions in parents to reduce the stress experienced by the birth of a premature infant. The aims were to describe and classify the different interventions and to have an overview of their effectiveness. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guide and the PICO model. For searching the bibliography, we used Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed and PsycINFO databases. From a total of 450 articles identified, this review finally included 46 studies with empirical evidence. The articles clustered into different types of interventions, such as psychoeducational and parental or maternal support programs, relaxation techniques, expressive writing, art therapy, music therapy and interventions related to interaction and tactile stimulation. There is a wide range of effectiveness in reducing parental stress to a greater or lesser degree. There is a great heterogeneity of interventions. Despite that, they all have a parental educational component that needs to be studied in greater depth.

Preterm birth (before 37 weeks of gestational age) is associated with certain risks to child development. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize available and updated empirical evidence on prematurity as a risk factor for cognitive development in school age. Thus, we attempted to identify similarities and differences with the full-term population and to point out possible risk or protective factors among the biological, psychosocial and family variables. The conceptualization and methodology of this review followed the PRISMA recommendations. The search was carried out in Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo, and Dialnet databases, in May 2022. The search was limited to journal articles, published between 2012 and 2022, in English and Spanish. Research articles selected were those focused on the intelligence quotient (IQ) of preterm children aged 6–12 years. The review included studies with cross-sectional or longitudinal cohorts, compared to a control group of children born at term or to standardized scales. The quality of evidence of the selected studies was verified with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The initial search identified 1,040 articles. Forty articles met the inclusion criteria and were finally included in this review. These studies involved 5,396 preterm children from 37 different cohorts. Despite the diversity found among the results, in general, total IQ scores were within the normative mean for premature children; however, compared to their full-term peers, these scores were lower. The most studied variables in relation to IQ are perinatal (e.g., gestational age and birth weight) and family (e.g., socioeconomic level and education level of the mother). Recent studies corroborate that premature birth affects cognitive development in school age, and identify associated perinatal and family variables.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=337371; identifier: CRD42022337371.

Background/objective Health-related quality of life is a concept that includes aspects about physical, emotional and social well-being. The aim of the study was to validate the PedsQL for parent report for toddlers in Spain and provide reference data in a Spanish population. Method The sample included 478 parents (89.5% mothers) of children aged 18–36 months (M = 26.75 months). Sociodemographic data were gathered, and the PedsQL and Kiddy-KINDL-R were completed by the participants. Results The fit of the original structure of the PedsQL was acceptable (CFI = 0.93; TLI = 0.92; RMSEA = 0.06), and the results showed good internal consistency (α = 0.85). The items about nursery school were excluded, since not all the toddlers attended this type of educational centre. Significant differences were found in physical health and activities and in the total mean in terms of parent education level, and in social activities regarding gender. For the normative interpretation of the PedsQL, the first, second and third quartiles corresponded to 77.78, 84.72 and 90.28, respectively. Conclusions This instrument is not only useful to individually evaluate the quality of life of a child with respect to his/her group, but also to measure the efficacy of a possible intervention.