Parents of older and healthier newborns, with less social support, less resilient

Parents of older, healthier newborns who had less social support had less resilience when their child was hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), a finding correlated with a greater number of symptoms of depression and anxiety, according to research conducted by Children's in the framework of the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Assembly 2019 project.

Resilience is the nascent but adaptable natural ability of people to rebound in the face of significant adversity. Published research indicates that high resilience is badociated with reduced psychological distress, but the phenomenon has not been extensively studied in parents of children hospitalized in a NICU.

"We know that having a child hospitalized at the NICU can be a time of stress for families," said Ololade Okito, MD, lead author of the cross-sectional study. "The good news is that when parents' resilience scores increase, we see a correlation with fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety." Parents who feel they have good family support also have higher resilience scores . "

The project is an offshoot of a large study examining the impact of peer mentoring from other NICU parents who have experienced the same strong emotions as their toddlers, sometimes successful and uncomfortable. sometimes in trouble.

The research team recruited 35 parents whose infants were 34 weeks gestation and younger, and administered a battery of validated investigations, including:

• The Connor-Davidson Resiliency Scale
• Inventory of anxiety characteristic of the state
• Multidimensional scale of perceived social support
• Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and
• Parents Stress Scale – NICU

Forty percent of these parents had high resilience scores; parents whose infants averaged 27.3 weeks of gestation and who had more serious health problems reported greater resilience. In addition, 40% of these parents had high depressive symptoms, while 31% had positive anxiety screening. The research team writes that parents' distress affects the quality of parent-child interactions and the long-term development of the child.

"Higher stress badociated with NICU is badociated with greater symptoms of depression and anxiety in parents," said Lamia Soghier, MD, MEd, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit for children and lead author of the study. "Specifically targeting interventions on these parents can help improve their resilience, reduce the stress of a child's parenting at the NICU and give these children a healthier start to life."

More information:
Presentation of the 2019 Annual Meeting of Pediatric Academic Societies: "Study on Parental Resilience and Psychological Distress in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PARENT)"