Poster #41 - Social Contexts and Variations of Mother-Infant Interaction Patterns in the NICU

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

Purpose: The NICU environment is a high-risk context for mothers and infants to foster healthy relationships due to the stressful nature of the NICU and the ongoing challenge for mothers to adapt to their infant’s changing medical status and gestational development. However, few studies have examined mother-preterm infant interaction patterns during the period of a NICU hospitalization, and specifically, how these patterns may vary according to social situations typically encountered in the NICU. Methods: This study used a within-subjects repeated time series design to observe changes in frequency and duration of naturalistic behavioral interaction patterns in 12 mother-preterm infant dyads hospitalized in the NICU (Table 1). When infants were 32-weeks gestational age, dyads were video recorded across three time points in three social situations (i.e., routine cares, feeding, and nurturing). Differences in frequency and duration of maternal interaction behaviors and infant behaviors were analyzed across social contexts. Applying a predefined coding scheme grounded in the Biobehavioral Model of Synchrony (Feldman, 2012), maternal and infant behaviors were coded using frame-by-frame microanalysis using Observer XT 16.0 software. Codes included maternal communicative behaviors (task touch, nurturing touch, vocal, gaze, and vestibular stimulation) and infant communicative behaviors (touch, gaze/eyes open, vocalization, and movement). Analysis included calculating the mean duration, total duration, rater per minute, and frequency of each communicative behavior for each social interaction context. Next, a one-way repeated measures ANOVA with pairwise comparisons was performed for each coded behavior to identify differences in interaction patterns among the three social contexts. Results: Table 2 displays the summary statistics for all behaviors for each social context. In analyzing maternal behaviors, significant differences were identified for both nurturing (F (2,22) = 11.81, p < .001) and task touch (F (2,22) = 37.76, p < .001) behaviors. Overall findings for maternal touch behaviors indicated that mothers provided a significantly greater duration of nurturing touch in nurturing contexts followed by feeding and then routine cares. In contrast, mothers were observed using a significant duration of task touch behaviors during routine cares, followed by feeding and nurturing contexts, respectively. Analyses for infant behaviors between contexts showed significant results for touch (F (2,22) = 4.54, p < .05), gaze (F (2,22) = 6.64, p < .01), non-distressed vocalization (F (2,22) = 21.39, p < .001), and non-distressed movement (F (2,22) = 25.07, p < .001) behaviors. Pairwise comparisons showed infants demonstrated longer durations of touch during feeding and nurturing contexts, longer duration of eyes opened during feeding contexts, and longest duration of non-distressed vocalizations and non-distressed movement during routine cares. Implications: Overall, each social context presented unique differences in the duration of maternal and infant interaction behaviors. This study builds upon developmental science in furthering understanding of early relational communication patterns between mothers and preterm infants as they naturalistically unfold in the NICU. Subsequent studies may illuminate understanding if these dyadic interaction patterns are specific to this NICU setting or if these patterns occur in other NICUs settings.

Authors

• Christine Neugebauer, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Ann M Mastergeorge, Texas Tech University