Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2007. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 8, 2008. Dissertation Committee: Adena Meyers (chair), Eileen Fowles, Matthew Hesson-McInnis, Larua Berk, Glen Aylward. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-166) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (p.75-79).

The UK currently has the highest number of premature births (babies born before 37 weeks gestation age and below 2.5kg) in Europe affecting around 70,000 babies and their caregivers each year. Consequently many interventions have been created to support the development of the preterm newborn and minimise the complications of prematurity. Many of the interventions developed have been predominantly tactile and have almost exclusively focused upon their effect upon the baby and not, for example considered the effect that this type of intervention might have upon the parents; specifically the mother, when they are the ones who perform the therapy. In fact there is a severe lack of systematic studies investigating the latter. Hence, the aim of this thesis was to search for research-based evidence on the benefits of environmental support to both babies (e.g. increased weight gain or awake periods) and their mothers (e.g. higher perceptions of themselves as a mother) during hospital confinement and within the context of Neonatal Health Psychology (NNHP). For this reason, the main hypothesis investigated whether mothers’ cognitions and emotions; specifically Maternal Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem and Attachment, would be affected by environmental mediators in the form of structured or non-structured tactile sensory nurturing interventions. The empirical work reported in this thesis is divided into 3 distinct phases. Firstly, as their was no appropriate measure of maternal Self-Efficacy for mothers of hospitalised preterm neonates the main aim of Phase-1 was to develop and validate an appropriate measure. Using a prospective survey method and a mixed design (between/within and correlational) a total of 160 mother-preterm dyads (pooled from 2 cohorts; cohort 1, N=100; cohort 2, N=60) were recruited. The results demonstrated that the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy (PMPS-E) tool had good initial psychometric properties (including internal/external reliability and construct validity) for its use with mothers of relatively healthy hospitalised preterm neonates. Secondly, in order to investigate mothers’ perceived maternal parenting self-efficacy beliefs further Phase-2 examined whether the type of feeding a mother chose to give to her baby mediated her self-efficacy beliefs. The results suggested that breastfeeding a preterm neonate during hospital confinement may adversely affect mothers’ perceptions of their efficacy in all aspects of parenting. Finally, using an experimental method Phase-3 tested the main hypothesis of this thesis and used a randomised cluster control trial (RCCT) design to allocate 60 mothers and their preterms equally to one of three cluster groups; consisting of either structured (e.g. TAC-TIC therapy or Using a Toy) or non-structured (Placebo/Control) tactile sensory nurturing interventions. The main findings illustrate that tactile sensory nurturing interventions do mediate maternal cognitions and emotions, preterm weight gain and behavioural state. In particular, mothers who performed TAC-TIC demonstrated significantly higher self-reported perceptions in their self-efficacy, self-esteem and attachment, which was attributed to the fact that these babies spent increased amounts of time in an alert and responsive behavioural state, and gained more weight throughout the study period. Thus, the work presented throughout this thesis has implications for Neonatal Health Psychologists and other Health Care professionals’ practice within neonatal units, the use of Neonatal Health Psychology as a framework to study the preterm neonate and their family, and also the way in which both mothers and their hospitalised preterm neonates are supported during hospital confinement.

This study investigated the association between Chinese immigrant mothers' reports of parenting stress and two sources of parenting support: fathers' support and social support. Five independent-samples t-tests were first computed to examine whether there were discrepancies between Chinese immigrant mothers' and fathers' perceptions of fathers' involvement across five domains of fathers' involvement in early child care: (1) fathers' warmth and attunement; (2) control and process responsibility; (3) emotional involvement; (4) indirect care; and (5) positive engagement. Then regression analyses were conducted to understand how and to what extent the five domains of father involvement reported by mothers and mothers' perceived social support influenced Chinese immigrant mothers' parenting stress. In addition, an indirect effects of mothers' self-efficacy on the relation between fathers' involvement and mothers' parenting stress was also tested. The results showed that Chinese mothers reported significantly greater level of fathers' emotional involvement than the same type of involvement reported by Chinese immigrant fathers. This study also found that fathers' emotional involvement reported by Chinese immigrant mothers was a significant predictor of Chinese immigrant mothers' parenting stress. However, mothers' perceived social support was a stronger predictor, accounting for more variance in their parenting stress than their reports of fathers' involvement across all the five dimensions. Mothers' self-efficacy did not account for the association between Chinese immigrant mothers' reports of fathers' involvement across five dimensions and mothers' parenting stress.

Denna studie undersöker hur mödrars sociala jämförelser påverkar deras upplevda tilltro till att hantera specifika situationer inom föräldrarollen. Därtill undersöker studien om det är skillnad på att jämföra sig uppåtgående eller nedåtgående. Studiens urval består av 205 mödrar med barn i åldrarna 0-5 år, boendes i Sverige. Data har samlats in online och offline vid två tidpunkter (T1 och T2) med ett års mellanrum. Resultatet visar att sociala jämförelser inte påverkar mödrars upplevda tilltro i sig, specifikt uppåtgående jämförelser gör det. En spekulativ förklaring till resultatet är att sociala jämförelser kan ha en effekt på mödrars upplevda tilltro för stunden medans uppåtgående jämförelser påverkar långsiktigt. / The purpose of the study was to examine how mothers social comparison affect their believed self-efficacy managing specific situations within the parental role. Furthermore, the study has included a distinct difference between upward social comparison and downward social comparison to further emphasize the different outcomes of the two. The sample was based on 205 mothers with children ranging from ages 0-5 all based in Sweden. Data for the study was collected during two different occasions (T1 & T2) with a one year span in between them. The result showed in general, social comparison does not affect mothers believed self-efficacy per se, upward comparison do. A speculative explanation to the result is that social comparisons might have an effect on mothers self-efficacy in the moment while upward comparison have a long term effect.