Abstract
Moderately preterm born children (MPT) are at increased risk for behavior problems compared to full term born (FT) children. MPT children may receive less optimal parenting, and in response, may develop behavior problems. Our aims were to examine whether parenting behavior and mother–child interaction quality mediate the association between birth status and child behavior problems. Participants were 120 MPT children and 100 FT children. At 18 months of age, mothers reported on their parenting behavior (support and structure), and mother–child interaction (sensitivity and limit-setting) was observed. At 6 years of age, mothers reported on children’s behavior problems. Using structural equation modeling, birth status was found to predict attention problems, but not internalizing and externalizing problems. Mothers of MPT children set less appropriate limits than mothers of FT children at 18 months of age. More maternal structure at 18 months predicted fewer internalizing and externalizing problems, but not attention problems, at 6 years. These associations between parenting behavior, mother–child interaction quality, and child behavior problems were similar for MPT and FT children. Our findings indicate that maternal structure in toddlerhood is an important predictor of later internalizing and externalizing problems for both MPT and FT children.
Highlights
Worldwide, 10.6% of all children are born preterm [1]
The present study aimed to examine the longitudinal associations between birth status, parenting behavior problems between children, with regard to internalizing problems behavior, mother–child interaction quality, and child behavior problems in a sample of moderately preterm born (MPT) and
The timing of our study at 18 months corrected age may explain why we did not find conclusive evidence that mothers of MPT children provide less optimal parenting than mothers of Regarding the longitudinal associations between parenting behaviors at toddler age and child behavior problems at school age, we found that children whose mothers reported to provide more structure at 18 months of age experienced fewer internalizing and externalizing problems at 6 years of age
Summary
10.6% of all children are born preterm [1]. Preterm births are births that occur before 37 weeks of gestation [2], and are often further classified into three subcategories: extremely preterm (
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