Parents' Behavior Affects Development Of Low-Birth-Weight Babies.(maternal-infant interaction affects infant development)

2001 DEC 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Babies born small at full term may show different temperament characteristics than normal-weight babies, according to a study that also found the way a baby's mother responds to this sometimes-troublesome behavior can affect infant development.

The study, published in the December 2001 issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, notes that some smaller babies' early experiences, their home environment and the way their mothers perceive and interact with them affect the babies' performance on several infant development measurements, says lead author Kathleen S. Gorman, PhD, of the University of Rhode Island.

Mothers who perceive their small babies as difficult are less involved with and less responsive to their infants, and these infants score lower on developmental tests compared with babies whose mothers were more sensitive to their dispositions, the study found.

"Among [small for gestational age] infants, a perception of more difficult temperament in the first 3 months was associated with subsequently lower-quality parental behavior in ways that were not observed for the [normal birth weight] infant," says Gorman. Higher-quality parental behavior was defined as more sensitive, caring and appropriate mother-child interaction and was based on physical involvement, quality of interactions and the developmental appropriateness of interactions.

"Whereas it was clear that temperament and parenting were linked over time, our data suggest that in the case of the SGA infant, early temperament may be particularly critical for development ...