Parent—Infant interaction in free play at 8 and 12 months: Effects of prematurity and immaturity

Abstract

In Study 1, three groups of ten infants with differing neonatal problems (full-term, healthy preterm, sick preterm) were observed with their parents in four 15-minute play sessions. Each infant—parent dyad was observed once in the home and once in the laboratory when the infants were 8 months and again at 12 months of age. At 8 months, the sick preterm infants fussed more and played less than those in other groups whereas the full-term infants smiled more and spent more time in play than infants in other groups. This was parallelled by group differences in parent behavior. Parents of sick preterm infants spent more time close to their infants, more time in physical contact with them, and more time demonstrating toys to them than parents in other groups while parents of full-term infants were less actively involved than those in other groups. By 12 months most of the group differences were no longer evident. Study 2 compared the 8-month-old sick preterm group to full-term infants pair-matched by postconceptional age. The sick preterm infants fussed more and smiled less than their age-matched controls, whereas their parents were more active than those in the matched control group. These comparisons suggest that although the lesser amount of play in the sick preterm group is attributable to immaturity, their fussiness, and their parents' high level of activity are associated with prematurity and not immaturity.