DISTRESS LEARNING IN PREMATURE INFANTS: EARLY ANTECEDENTS OF DYSFUNCTIONAL PARENT-INFANT RELATIONSHIPS.
Contributors: Ohio State University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 121
Subjects: Psychology, Developmental.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Human Development.
Description: While medical technology has advanced in its ability to keep high-risk, low-birthweight premature infants alive, investigators have failed to study the emotional and social impact of this treatment on infants and parents. In addition to their risk for cognitive delay, premature infants are at high risk for abuse and neglect. Efforts to explain this phenomenon using the bonding hypothesis have proved inadequate, and we are forced to explore additional factors such as their learning history in the neonatal intensive care unit to explain the disruptions frequently observed in the interactions between premature infants and parents.

Subjects were 14 low-birthweight premature infants (mean gestational age = 31 weeks, mean birthweight = 1365 gm). Heart rate, state, and behavioral measures of body movements, vocalization, facial grimaces, and gaze were recorded during heel stick procedures, divided into 5 experimental conditions.

A repeated measures ANOVA revealed that heart rate increased significantly across days and differed significantly across conditions. However, there was no significant interaction between day and condition. This suggests that while the absolute value of heart rate increased over days and was significantly different across condition, the overall pattern was the same in all subjects. Chi-square analysis revealed that behavioral measures increased during the heel stick condition when compared to baseline measures, however, there was no evidence of agitated behavior occurring earlier during the observation period which would have indicated conditioning.

Thus, the results did not support the hypothesis that premature infants would develop a conditioned emotional distress response resulting from numerous aversive medical procedures. They do indicate that premature infants experience distress with aversive medical procedures, which is consistent with previous research in infants and children. The pattern of the behavior data suggests that with maturation of the organ systems, the infant's ability to modulate arousal and respond more adaptively to stimulation improves. Modulation of arousal has been proposed by investigators to explain an organism's adaptation to environmental stimulation, and may be an indication of the behavioral integrity of infants. The failure for distress learning to occur suggests that premature infants are more adaptive than previously believed. Reasons for a lack of conditioning and suggestions for future research were discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: B, page: 2085.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0168.