Measurement of Affectionate Behaviors Adolescent Mothers Display Toward Their Infants in Neonatal Intensive Care

Abstract

This paper describes two studies that had three purposes: (a) to modify a parent-child interaction tool used previously in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU); (b) to demonstrate interrater reliability, Chronbach's Alpha reliability, and construct validity of the tool with adolescent mothers, and (c) to determine the ability of nurses engaged in usual work duties to observe maternal behaviors. The first study tested interrater reliability. Two NICU nurses were trained, observed adolescent mothers (n = 20) for the same 15 min, and then separately completed the measure. The second study tested internal consistency reliability and construct validity with 107 adolescent mothers with infants in a NICU. Nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit completed the measure, and data on maternal visits were gathered for construct validity. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the first study was r = .83. Results of the second study demonstrated a Chronbach's Alpha of .85 and a significant correlation between ratings of maternal behavior and visits. The instrument obtained acceptably reliable and valid estimates of adolescent mothers' affectionate behaviors toward their infants. In addition, the studies demonstrated that nurses can observe maternal behaviors while performing their usual duties.

Adolescent Parenting in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

“…Christopher et al [27] used the Affectionate Behavior Assessment tool to assess maternal caring behaviors such as noninstrumental touch, looking at baby, and vocalization to the infant. The authors observed that young mothers who visited their babies less frequently exhibited less affectionate behaviors toward their infants compared with older mothers.…”

“…This could be attributed to differing conceptions of adolescence cross-culturally [61]. A significant number of the studies also exclude parents of infants with congenital abnormalities and/or critical illness [16,27,31,36,59]. Such variation in selection criteria limits comparability of studies and understanding of adolescent parenting in varying circumstances.…”

“…Data from interviews with 42 mothers were compared. Christopher et al [27] United States 16e20; 13e21 To modify and determine the efficacy of the Affectionate Behavior Assessment (ABA) tool for measuring adolescent mothers' affectionate behaviors toward their infants in the NICU. Inter-rater reliability was first assessed via the comparison of nurses' observations of 53 mothers aged 16e20 years.…”