While there is evidence that the interactions that occur in the early years of life between very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants and their mothers affects later child development, little is known about the factors that are associated with responsive and sensitive mother-VLBW infant interaction. Belsky's (1984) model of the determinants of parenting proposes that multiple child, parent, and contextual factors influence parenting behaviour. This prospective study examined the combined influence of a set of infant (i.e., birthweight and perinatal illness severity), mother (i.e., state anxiety and parenting sense of competence), and contextual variables (i.e., maternal received and perceived helpfulness of support, and marital adjustment) on mother-infant interaction, and assessed which factors were associated with sensitive and responsive interaction. / The participants were 72 mothers and their VLBW infants (<1500 grams). Infant, mother, and contextual variables were assessed at 3- and 9-months of age (corrected). At 9 months, mother-infant teaching interactions were observed in the home and later coded using the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (NCATS). / Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between mother-infant interaction and the infant, mother and contextual variables. The prospective model explained 33% of the variance in the interactive behaviour of the dyad. Dyads whose interaction was more sensitive and responsive at 9 months included mothers who were better-educated, less anxious at 3 months, and reported higher perceived support at 3 months. The concurrent model explained 29% of the variance in the interactive behaviour of the dyad. Dyads whose interaction was more sensitive and responsive included mothers who were better-educated and reported higher perceived support at 9 months. The hypothesis that the mother variables would be more important than the contextual variables in explaining mother-infant interaction was not supported. The findings highlight the importance of examining multiple infant, parent, and contextual variables to explain mother-VLBW infant interaction.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.37888 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Feeley, Nancy. |
| Contributors | Gottlieb, L. N. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (School of Nursing.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001845020, proquestno: NQ75630, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds