Mothers' assessments of term and pre-term infants with respiratory distress syndrome: Reliability and predictive validity

Abstract

Assessments of term and preterm RDS infants were made by mothers on an adaptation of the Brazelton scale. The mother's assessments were not significantly different from those assessments made by trained clinicians, and both mothers and clinicians assigned less optimal ratings to the preterm infants. These ratings were correlated with Bayley motor scores at eight months. Mothers' assessments of infant temperament were made at four and eight months. These temperament ratings were significantly correlated with each other and with clinicians' ratings on the Brazelton neonatal and eight-month-Bayley Scales. These findings suggest that mothers' assessments are reliable and have some predictive validity during early infancy.

High-risk infants “have less fun” during early interactions

“…The relative unresponsiveness of the preterm infant and his or her relatively less developed repertoire of coos and smiles, frequent gaze aversion, and fussiness may be perceived as aversive by the mother, as might the often noted fragile features of the preterm infant. In addition, the difficult temperaments of these infants (as evaluated by the parents; Field, Hallock, Dempsey, & Shuman, 1978) may contribute to a parental perception of these infants as being somewhat aversive. All of these aversive behaviors may be generalized by the parents to even those situations in which the infant is not displaying aversive behaviors.…”

Perceptions of neonatal behaviors by different caregivers

“…This is the first study that has reported that mothers and NBAS examiners agreed in their estimates of infants' orientation skills. Field and others (Field et al, 1978;Standley et al, 1981) found that mothers underestimate their infants' sociability in comparison to NBAS examiners. One explanation for the varying results is that Field et al's (1978) observations were based upon a more objective assessment of maternal perceptions.…”

“…Agreement between mothers' and clinicians' assessments of infant behaviors is one valid index of objectivity. Field and colleagues (Field, Hallock, Dempsey, & Shuman, 1978) examined mothers' and NBAS testers' perceptions of premature infants' and full-term infants' behaviors along dimensions of the NBAS. Mothers' judgments were based upon their administration of the Mother's Assessment of the Behavior of Her Infant (MABI), a modified version of the Brazelton.…”

The Carolina Record of Individual Behavior

“…Such characteristics are assumed not to be restricted to performance on specific tasks but to be generic in nature and observable across a variety of situations. A review of research on various domains of infant development (Simeonsson, Huntington, & Parse, 1980) has indicated that behavioral characteristics (Field, Hallock, Dempsey, & Shuman, 1978;Matheny, Dolan, & Wilson, 1974) have potential value to enhance assessment.…”