Browsing by Author "Åberg, Veera"

Preterm children (born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy) have been shown to have a risk of behavioral and emotional problems. These can occur as a withdrawal, social problems, general anxiety and problems in attention and self-regulation. Preterm birth is a stressful and often unexpected challenge for parents, and it affects to parenting. This thesis examines parenting and early interaction after preterm birth, and their associations with preterm children’s behavioral and emotional problems. Studies shows that parents of preterm children have more mental health problems and stress. Mothers of preterm children seem to be more directive, active, controlling, overstimulating and intrusive. Preterm children are more passive, inattentive and withdrawn, less responsive and display more emotional negativity. Attachment relationships between preterm children and their parents have been shown to be mainly similar than those of full-term children and their parents. Differences in the quality of attachment have mainly been noticed when preterm children in risk groups, for example children with also other neurological risk factors, and their parents have been examined. Parenting is essential for children’s development and psychological well-being, and it is important to understand its role for preterm children in particular. There are little studies about the importance of parenting to preterm children’s behavioral and emotional problems. These studies indicate that parents’ affectiveness, sensitivity, intrusiveness, control, and dyadic synchrony, may affect to children’s behavioral and emotional problems, for example in their anxiety, withdrawn and inhibited behaviors, social competence and self-regulation skills. Studying the subject is important because of preterm births’ effects on parenting and because the special characteristics of preterm children’s development, maturation and early interaction, may restrict possibility to applying general research about parenting to preterm children and their parents. More research is needed to gain wider and more detailed understanding, but based on the current research, it is recommended to support parents’ psychological well-being and the development of a sensitive parent-child relationship after a preterm birth.