Socio-Emotional Development in Preterm Infants

January 27, 2010 updated by: National Taiwan University Hospital

With advances in medicine and medical technology, premature infants born as early as 24 weeks of gestation and with birth weight less than 1000 grams are surviving today. Preterms are born with immature biological systems. Given their biological vulnerabilities, preterm infants are at risk for a variety of health and developmental problems.

As a group, preterms show developmental delays in physical growth, motor skills, attention, social communicative skills, intelligence, language, academic performance, and later behavior problems. Furthermore, research indicates that preterms are difficult social partners for their parents.

Despite biological insults and relational difficulties, research also shows that the development of premature infants appears to be facilitated by sensitive and responsive parenting. Little attention, however, has been paid to understand the social risks faced by preterm infants.

The proposed research, therefore, is designed to:

  1. understand the extent to which neurophysiological risk may affect preterm infants' socioemotional development,
  2. explore the role of maternal social support, sociopsychological stress, and perception of infant vulnerability in the socioemotional development of preterm infants varying in biological risk,
  3. examine the role of social support in buffering stress in mothers of preterm infants, and
  4. evaluate the role of maternal stress, coping, and support in preterm infants' socioemotional development.

This study will include preterm infants recruited from the National Taiwan University Hospital at term and 12 months of corrected age. Infants will be examined for physical growth, neurobehavioral development, and mother and infant interaction at term. The growth measures including weight, height and head circumference will be assessed. Interaction between mother and infant will be investigated by observing the interaction between infants and their mothers in feeding and skin to skin contact conditions. Mothers' psychosocial stress and social support will be obtained via questionnaires.

It is expected that preterm infants' physical growth and neurobehavioral development as well as mothers' psychosocial stress and social support are associated with the quality of mother-infant interaction.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Anticipated)

100

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Suh-Fang Jeng, Ph.D.
  • Phone Number: (02)33668132
  • Email: jeng@ntu.edu.tw

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Hui-Chin Hsu, Ph.D.
  • Phone Number: (706) 542-2636
  • Email: hchin@uga.edu

Study Locations

  • Taiwan
      • Taipei, Taiwan, 100
        • Recruiting
        • National Taiwan University Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Hui-Chin Hsu, Ph.D.

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Infants born prematurely with no significant congenital problems (e.g., cleft palate, cardiac malformations) and their mothers ages 18 to 40.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • preterm infants

Exclusion Criteria:

  • significant congenital problems

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Preterm infants
birth weight<1500 grams and gestational age<30 weeks

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
quality of mother-infant interaction
Time Frame: term age and 12 months of corrected age
term age and 12 months of corrected age

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
maternal parenting efficacy
Time Frame: term age and 12 months of corrected age
term age and 12 months of corrected age

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Taiwan University Hospital

Collaborators

University of Georgia

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Hui-Chin Hsu, Ph.D., University of Georgia

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2010

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2010

Study Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 8, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 8, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

June 10, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 29, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 27, 2010

Last Verified

January 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 200904054R

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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