Parental stress in the NICU: the influence of personality, psychological, pregnancy and family factors

Abstract

Background The birth of an infant requiring admission to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can represent a considerable source of stress for some parents. Currently, little is known about the factors associated with parental stress response to the NICU, especially for fathers. The objective of this study is to compare sources of NICU stress for mothers and fathers and explore variables associated with NICU stress.Method One hundred and seventy‐two randomly selected couples with an infant admitted to the NICU were administered a structured clinical interview and completed self‐report measures, including the Parental Stress Scale (PSS).Results Mothers had the highest overall stress. The altered parental role was the highest source of stress for both parents. Key general predictors of parental stress were dysfunctional personality traits and high anxiety. For mothers, high stress was associated with lower income, de facto relationship, abnormal pregnancy scan and no previous NICU experience. For fathers, high stress was associated with transfer of the pregnant mother due to complications and early experience of paternal over control.Conclusion Identification of factors that contribute to parent stress can enable health professionals to facilitate parent adaptation and coping, thereby promoting optimal parent–infant relationships and subsequent infant development. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Estrés en padres de recién nacidos hospitalizados en una unidad de paciente crítico neonatal

“…and the relationship with the staff generate lower levels of stress in the parents. This is consistent with other studies that have investigated parental stress in the context of NICU 4,5,8,17,20,23,24,27,31 .…”

“…This differs from the studies by Carter et al 5,6 and Dudek-Shriber 8 , in which higher stress scores in mothers are associated with having complicated pregnancies and not having previous experience of having a child hospitalized in a NICU 5,6,8 .…”

“…Several studies indicate that mothers present higher levels of stress than fathers, as well as greater anxious and depressive symptomatology 5,27,33,34 . However, in this study, differences in stress levels of men and women are not statistically significant, so the gender variable would not be affecting the parents' reaction to their child's hospitalization.…”

“…This scale has been widely used in the neonatal literature 1,5,8,17,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and has been shown to have high validity and reliability 4 . Authors' permission was obtained for their use.…”

“…Several investigations [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] agree that having a hospitalized NB produces high levels of stress in parents. The expectation of having a healthy child is interrupted by the shock that means to be separated from him/her and not being able to take care of their baby as imagined.…”