A comparison of parental interactions with term and preterm infants

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare father interactions to mother interactions with term and preterm infants. A purposive sample of 59 two-parent families with either a healthy term infant or a clinically normal preterm infant were recruited following the infant's birth. At 3 months, separate observations were made of each parent interacting with the infant during a teaching task in the home setting. As has been found in other research, mother-infant interactions scores were less favorable for preterm dyads. In contrast, father-infant interaction scores were less favorable for term dyads. The different pattern of interactions by the fathers was not explained by differences in paternal age, education, socioeconomic status, the father's current frequency of participation in child care or by infant gender.

Effect of infertility on mothers' and fathers' interactions with young infants

“…A similar phenomenon has been found to occur in the fathers of premature infants (Harrison, 1990;Yogman, 1987). Although the mothers of prematures have generally been found to provide less stimulation than mothers of full-terms (Holditch-Davis & Thoman, 1988), fathers of prematures provide more caregiving and have more positive interactions than fathers of full-terms (Harrison, 1990;Yogman, 1987).…”

“…Although the mothers of prematures have generally been found to provide less stimulation than mothers of full-terms (Holditch-Davis & Thoman, 1988), fathers of prematures provide more caregiving and have more positive interactions than fathers of full-terms (Harrison, 1990;Yogman, 1987). Parke and Anderson (1 987) suggested that father involvement increases when an infant's illness leads to moderately difficult circumstances that impair the mother's ability to care for the infant.…”

Low-income fathers and their infants: Interactions during teaching episodes

“…Thus, over time fathers and infants develop interaction patterns influenced not only by maturation, but also by familiarity and experience. In fact, fathers who have greater experience with their infants, may become more skilled at engaging their infants in sensitive interactions (Harrison, 1990).…”

Effects of Parenting Education on First-Time Fathers' Skills in Interactions with Their Infants

“…The NCATS has been used with fathers of infants ages one to 24 months Harrison et al, 2001). The NCATS differentiates between maternal (Barnard, Bee, & Hammond, 1984;Harrison & Magill-Evans, 1996) and paternal (Harrison & Magill-Evans, 1996;Harrison, 1990) interactions with preterm and term infants. Paternal NCATS scores with a threemonth-old child predicted receptive language development at 18 months and scores from interactions at 12 months predicted expressive language development at four years .…”