Perceived stress of mothers and fathers on two NICUs before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Parents of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants in a neonatal intensive care unit experienced additional stress during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic due to the related restrictions in hospital visiting policies. Our study aimed to compare parents' burdens before and during the pandemic. This survey included 121 parents of 76 VLBW infants in two European Level IV perinatal centers before and during the pandemic. We performed standardized parent questionnaires with mothers and fathers separately to evaluate their emotional stress and well-being. The pandemic worsened the emotional well-being of parents of VLBW infants, particularly of mothers. During the pandemic, mothers reported significantly higher state anxiety levels (48.9 vs. 42.9, p = 0.026) and hampered bonding with the child (6.3 vs. 5.2, 0 = 0.003) than before. In addition, mothers felt more personally restricted than fathers (6.1 vs. 5.2, p = 0.003). Fathers experienced lower levels of stress than mothers; they were equally burdened before and during the pandemic. Restrictions in visiting policies for families of VLBW infants during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have a significant negative impact on parental stress and should therefore be applied cautiously.

The impact of pandemic restrictive visiting policies on infant wellbeing in a NICU.

BACKGROUND: Given the countrywide lockdown in the first pandemic period and the respective Hospital restrictive policies, we aimed to investigate if the SARS-COV-2 pandemic was associated to a reduced parental presence in the NICU and in which form this had an impact on infant wellbeing. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study about altered NICUs parental presence (measured by number of visits and kangaroo care time) due to pandemic restrictive policies and its impact on infant wellbeing (measured through The Neonatal Pain Agitation and Sedation scale and nurses' descriptive documentation). RESULTS: Presence of both parents at the same time was significantly lower during pandemic. Contrary, maternal presence only and total kangaroo-care time were higher within the pandemic (163.36 ± 94.07 vs 122.71 ± 64.03; p = 0.000). Lower NPASS values were documented during the lookdown (1.28 ± 1.7 vs 1.78 ± 2.2; p = 0.000). CONCLUSION: Data collected through the pandemic confirm the importance of parental presence for infants' wellbeing in a NICU setting. IMPACT: Parental support is an extremely important aspect for infants hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Their presence was limited in many NICUs worldwide during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. This study confirm the importance of parental presence for infants' wellbeing also in a pandemic situation. Our results support a family-centered newborn individualized developmental care approach in the NICU.

Reflective functioning in fathers with young children born preterm and at term.

The present study assessed 322 parents of 173 children aged between 12 and 20 months (74 children born preterm) with the Parent Development Interview (PDI) to capture parents' Reflective Functioning (RF). RF scores were obtained, and topics were disclosed, for which modeling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was applied. The study addressed (a) whether RF scores differed between fathers of children born preterm and at term, and diverged from the mothers' RF and, (b) whether topics on fathers' minds differed regarding parenting preterm or at-term children, and diverged from topics on parenting raised by mothers. Results indicated that parents of at-term children revealed similar RF scores, though fathers of children born preterm scored lower than mothers of children born preterm. Whereas fathers' RF scores were associated with topics about the paternal role, interests and activities, mothers' RF was related to concerns about how to meet the child's needs.

Parent-child attachment in children born preterm and at term: A multigroup analysis.

OBJECTIVE: While ample research exists about mother-child attachment, so far little focus has been on specifics of father-child attachment. Even less research is available on the nature of the father-child relationship for children born preterm. The objective of this study was to determine whether children born preterm (23 to 37 weeks gestation) differ in their attachment to their fathers and mothers from their term peers (> 37 weeks gestation), and whether specific child characteristics, such as gender, twin status, and developmental status, have an influence on the parent-child relationship. METHODS: The sample consisted of 290 children (n = 140 girls, 48.28%), 190 born before term (including 45 twin pairs) between 12 and 36 months of age (M = 19.5, SD = 5.7) and 100 term children of the same age (M = 18.8, SD = 6.1) with their 245 fathers and mothers. Attachment of the children with their mothers and fathers was assessed using the Attachment Q-sort during two home visits. Children's developmental status was measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. RESULTS: Within a multigroup analysis of parents with children born preterm and at term more secure attachment was found for both parents in the term sample than in the preterm group. Correlates of attachment specific to fathers of children born preterm accumulated to an explained variance of R2 = .82. For those fathers, less education as well as lower development scores and male gender of the child were associated with lower attachment scores. In the three other parent-child constellations the explained variance did not exceed 20%. Child development proved to be a significant predictor for father-child attachment regardless of the child's birth status. Male gender was associated with lower attachment scores for children born preterm with either parent. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight the importance of including fathers in research and clinical practice and informing them about preterm birth, possible problems, and developmental consequences as well. Health professionals should be advised to create interventions focusing on both parents to enhance the quality of attachment in parent-child dyads in children born preterm.

Cognitive and emotional demands of black humour processing: the role of intelligence, aggressiveness and mood.

Humour processing is a complex information-processing task that is dependent on cognitive and emotional aspects which presumably influence frame-shifting and conceptual blending, mental operations that underlie humour processing. The aim of the current study was to find distinctive groups of subjects with respect to black humour processing, intellectual capacities, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. Cluster analysis yields three groups comprising following properties: (1) moderate black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence; low mood disturbance and moderate aggressiveness; (2) low black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence, high mood disturbance and high aggressiveness; and (3) high black humour preference and high comprehension; high nonverbal and verbal intelligence; no mood disturbance and low aggressiveness. Age and gender do not differ significantly, differences in education level can be found. Black humour preference and comprehension are positively associated with higher verbal and nonverbal intelligence as well as higher levels of education. Emotional instability and higher aggressiveness apparently lead to decreased levels of pleasure when dealing with black humour. These results support the hypothesis that humour processing involves cognitive as well as affective components and suggest that these variables influence the execution of frame-shifting and conceptual blending in the course of humour processing.