Behavior Problems and Maternal and Family Factors in Children Who Were Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) ♦ 1258

Abstract

Recent follow-up studies of VLBW infants have focused on cognitive, sensory, motor, and educational outcome, with relatively little emphasis placed on behavioral and social adjustment outcome. The few studies that have included those outcomes have not explored whether a child's behavior and social adjustment, as reported by the parent, is influenced by the parent's own psychological status. The present study explored the relationships between family stress, maternal anxiety and optimism, and maternal reported child behavior problems in a sample of 8-year-olds who had been born VLBW. Fifty infants born between 1986 and 1988 with BW .05). Family and maternal variables accounted for 10 to 25% of the variance associated with scores on behavioral and social adjustment measures. It appears that behavioral and social adjustment outcome may be viewed as stemming from an interaction of biologic, family, and maternal variables. Investigators are cautioned to include measures of family and parent stress in their follow-up studies of high-risk infants.