Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:58:58.132Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prediction of behavior problems in 4-year-olds born prematurely

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Susan Goldberg*
Affiliation:
The Hospital for Sick Children University of Toronto
Carl Corter
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Mirek Lojkasek
Affiliation:
The Hospital for Sick Children York University
Klaus Minde
Affiliation:
Queen's University
*
Address reprint requests to: Susan Goldberg, Psychiatric Research Unit, Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8, Canada.

Abstract

Longitudinal follow-up data for 69 very low birthweight preterm infants were used to assess the influence of four factors (neonatal medical complications, infant temperament, mother-child relationships, and family environment) on mother and teacher reports of behavior problems at 4 years. The proposed model of such influences being tested assumed that (1) the effects of neonatal medical factors would be indirect, and (2) each of the other three factors would show high stability from 1 to 4 years and would have a direct influence on behavior problem outcomes. Neither neonatal medical data nor infant-mother attachment were good predictors of behavior problems at age 4. With these exceptions, teacher report of behavior problems was predicted in a fashion consistent with the preliminary model. However, mother reports of behavior problems was predicted only by prior mother reports of child temperament. Discussion focuses on reasons for discrepancies in these pathways of influence.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Bell, S. M. V., & Stayton, D. J. (1971). Individual differences in strange situation behaviors of one-year-olds. In Schaffer, H. R. (Ed.), The origins of human social relations. London: Academic.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Arend, R., Gove, F., & Sroufe, L. A. (1979). Continuity of individual adaptations from infancy to kindergarten: A predictive study of ego resiliency and curiosity in preschoolers. Child Development, 50, 950959.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, J. E., & Bayles, K. (1988). Attachment and development of behavior problems. In Belsky, J. & Nezworski, (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bates, J. E., Maslin, C. A., & Frankel, K. A. (1985) Attachment security, mother-child interaction, and temperament as predictors of behavior problem ratings at age three years. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1–2, Serial No. 209).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behar, L. (1977). The preschool behavior questionnaire. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 5, 265275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benton, A. L. (1940). Mental development of prematurely born children. American Journal of Ortho-psychiatry, 10, 719746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biddle, B. J., & Marlin, M. (1987). Causality, confirmation, credulity, and structural equation modeling. Child Development, 58, 417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breslau, N., Klein, N., & Allen, L. (1988). Very low birthweight: Sequelae at nine years of age. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 605612.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bretherton, I., & Waters, E. (Eds.). (1985). Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (12, Serial No. 209).Google Scholar
Broman, S. H., Nichols, P. L., & Kennedy, W. A. (1975). Preschool IQ: Prenatal and early developmental correlates. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Chess, S., & Thomas, A. (1982). Infant bonding: Mystique and reality. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 52, 213222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1985). Social networks, quality of child-rearing, and child development. Child Development, 56, 12991313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dillon, W. R., & Goldstein, M. (1984). Multivariate analysis: Methods and applications. Toronto: Wiley.Google Scholar
Douglas, J. W. B. (1960). “Premature” children at primary school. British Medical Journal, 1, 10081013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drillien, C. M. (1964). The growth and development of the prematurely born infant. Edinburgh: Livingston.Google Scholar
Earls, F., & Jung, K. G. (1987). Temperament and home environment characteristics as causal factors in the early development of childhood psychopathology. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 491498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egeland, B., Taraldson, B., & Brunquell, D. (1977). Observations of waiting room and feeding situations. Unpublished manual. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Erickson, M., Sroufe, L. A., & Egeland, B. (1985). The relationship between quality of attachment and behavior problems in a preschool high risk sample. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1–2, Serial No. 209).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Escalona, S. (1984). Social and other environmental influences on the cognitive and personality development of low birth weight infants. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 88, 508512.Google Scholar
Field, T. M., Dempsey, J., & Shuman, H. H. (1983). Five-year followup of preterm respiratory distress syndrome and post-term postmaturity in infants. In Field, T. M., & Sostek, A. (Eds.), Infants born at risk: Physiological, perceptual and cognitive processes. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Fullard, W., McDevitt, S., & Carey, W. (1978). Assessing temperament in one-to-three-year-olds. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 9, 205217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, S. (1988). Risk factors in infant-mother attachment. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 42, 173188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, S., & DiVitto, B. (1983). Born too soon: Preterm birth and early development. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Goldberg, S., Fischer-Fay, A., Simmons, R., Fowler, R., & Levison, H. (1989). Chronic illness and infant-attachment. Paper presented in the Symposium on Use of the Strange Situation with Atypical Populations. Meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development. Kansas City, MO.Google Scholar
Goldberg, S., Lojkasek, M., Gartner, G., & Corter, C. (1989). Early maternal responsiveness and social development in low birthweight preterm infants. In Bornstein, M. (Ed.), Maternal responsiveness: Characteristics and consequences. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Goldberg, S., Perrotta, M., Minde, K., & Corter, C. (1986). Maternal behavior and attachment in low birthweight twins and singletons. Child Development, 57, 3446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golden, M., & Birns, B. (1976). Social class and infant intelligence. In Lewis, M. (Ed.), Origins of intelligence: Infancy and early childhood. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Hoy, E., Bill, J., & Sykes, D. (1988). Very low birthweight: A long term developmental impairment. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 11, 3767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, N. K., Hack, M., & Breslau, N. (1989). Children who were very low birthweight: Development and academic achievement at nine years of age. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 10, 3237.Google ScholarPubMed
Knobloch, H., Rider, R., Harper, P., & Pasamanick, B. (1956) Neuropsychiatric sequelae of prematurity. Journal of the American Medical Association, 161, 581585.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, M., Feiring, C., McGuffog, C., & Jaskir, J. (1984) Predicting psychopathology in six-year-olds from early social relations. Child Development, 55, 123136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, A. F. (1977). Preschoolers' competence with a peer: Relations with attachment and peer experience. Child Development, 48, 12771287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lilienfeld, A., Pasamanick, B., & Rogers, M. (1955). Relationship between pregnancy experience and the development of certain neuropsychiatric disorders. American Journal of Public Health, 45, 637645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In Bretherton, I. & Waters, E. (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1–2, Serial No. 209).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDevitt, S., & Carey, W. (1978). The measurement of temperament in 3- to 7-year-old children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 19, 245253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minde, K. (1984). The impact of prematurity on the later behavior of children and on their families. Clinics in Perinatology, 11, 227244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minde, K., Goldberg, S., Perrotta, M., Washington, J., Lojkasek, M., & Parker, K. (1989). Continuities and discontinuities in the development of 64 very low birthweight infants. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 391404.Google Scholar
Minde, R., & Minde, K. (1977). Behavioural screening of preschool children: A new approach to mental health? In Graham, P. J. (Ed.), Epidemiological approaches in child psychiatry. London: Academic.Google Scholar
Minde, K., Whitelaw, A., Brown, J., & Fitzhardinge, P. (1983). Effect of neonatal complications in premature infants on early parent-infant interactions. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 25, 763777.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mohr, G. J., & Bartelme, P. F. (1934). Developmental studies of prematurely born children. In Hess, H. J., Mohr, G. J., & Bartelme, P. F. (Eds.), The physical and mental growth of prematurely grown children. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Offord, D. R., Boyle, M. H., Szatmari, P., Rae-Grant, N., Links, P., Cadman, D. T., Byles, J. A., Crawford, J. W., Munroe-Blum, H., Bynne, C., Thomas, H., & Woodward, C. A. (1987). The Ontario Child Health Study: Prevalence of disorder and rates of service utilization. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 832836.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richman, N., & Graham, P. J. (1971). A behavioural screening questionnaire for use with three-year-old children: Preliminary findings. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16, 277287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M. (1979). Protective favors in children's response to stress and disadvantage. In Kent, M. W. & Rolf, J. E. (Eds.), Primary prevention of psychopathology, Vol. 3: Social competence in children. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1987). Continuities and discontinuities from infancy. In Osofsky, J. (Ed.), Handbook of infant development (2nd ed.) (pp. 12561296). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Sameroff, A. J., & Chandler, M. J. (1975). Reproductive risk and the continuum of caretaking casualty. In Horowitz, F. D., Hetherington, E. M., Scarr-Salapatele, S., & Siegel, G. M. (Eds.), Review of child development research (Vol. 4, pp. 187244). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sameroff, A. J., Seifer, R., Barocas, B., Zax, M., & Greenspan, S. (1987). IQ scores of 4-year-old children: Social-environmental risk factors. Pediatrics, 79, 343350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seidel, U. P., Chadwick, D. F. D., & Rutter, M. (1975). Psychological disorders in crippled children: A comparative study of children with and without brain damage. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 17, 563573.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. A. (1983). Individual patterns of adaptation from infancy to preschool. In Perlmutter, M. (Ed.), Minnesota symposium on child psychology (Vol. 16, pp. 4181). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Birch, H. (1968). Temperament and behavior disorders in children. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Werner, E., & Smith, R. S. (1982). Vulnerable but invincible: Kanai's children come of age. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar