Parenting style impacts cognitive and behavioural outcomes of former preterm infants: A systematic review

Abstract

We sought to evaluate published evidence in aggregate regarding the impact of parenting style on the cognitive and behavioural outcomes of former preterm infants. We searched 5 databases using germane MeSH terms. Parenting style was defined as any descriptor of parenting using ≥2 dimensions on published parenting axes. We evaluated studies for quality of evidence and strength of recommendations using standardized tools and categorized summative recommendations by parenting axis and child outcome. Twenty-seven articles met our inclusion criteria. Parental responsivity is the only parenting axis strongly associated with both improved child cognition and behaviour. Parental demandingness is associated only with improved child cognition, and parental warmth and rejection are associated only with child behaviour. Parental coercion is not associated with subsequent child outcomes. Parental responsivity may be essential in optimizing neurodevelopment in former preterm infants. More targeted studies are needed to inform this relationship and identify opportunities for intervention.

Parenting Styles of Parents Who Had Children With and Without High Risk at Birth: A Cross-sectional Comparative Study

“…Parental rejection includes parental anger, hostility, criticism, disapproval, and frustration towards the child. Parental rejection has been associated with poorer behavioral outcomes in children, especially those born with high risk at birth [27]. Factors of the authoritarian parenting style, such as verbal hostility, is comparatively less in mothers of children born with high risk whereas corporal punishment, non-reasoning, and punitive strategies are increased in mothers of both groups.…”

Stockholm preterm interaction-based intervention (SPIBI) - study protocol for an RCT of a 12-month parallel-group post-discharge program for extremely preterm infants and their parents

“…It is hardly surprising that an EPT birth influences the infant-parent relationship unfavourably [11,44], and parental behaviour should therefore also be targeted. Since parental responsivity seems to be the parental style that influences preterm children's cognitive development the most, and since parental responsivity and warmth seem to affect preterm children's behaviour favourably [45], these should be critical components of any post-discharge intervention aimed at this group. Moreover, the finding that parental rejection affects indicators of preterm children's behaviour negatively [45] supports the idea of a strengthsbased approach, focusing on children's abilities more than their difficulties.…”

“…Since parental responsivity seems to be the parental style that influences preterm children's cognitive development the most, and since parental responsivity and warmth seem to affect preterm children's behaviour favourably [45], these should be critical components of any post-discharge intervention aimed at this group. Moreover, the finding that parental rejection affects indicators of preterm children's behaviour negatively [45] supports the idea of a strengthsbased approach, focusing on children's abilities more than their difficulties. In addition, attention should be given to the EPT population's challenges concerning executive functions.…”

Temperamental Development among Preterm Born Children. An RCT Follow-Up Study

“…Early interventional effects on parenting stress have been reported [35], and parenting stress is assumed to affect parents' capacity to be sensitive [36,37]. Mothers of preterms are reported to be equally sensitive as mothers of full-terms [38], but preterms seem more negatively affected by low parental sensitivity than full-terms [24,37,39,40]. Thus, parenting stress reported in infancy may be a predictor of parents' perception of preterm born children's temperament [21].…”