Infants in Crisis: How Parents Cope with Newborn Intensive Care and Its Aftermath

ISBN-13: 9781461277750 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 156 str.

Glenn Affleck; Howard Tennen; Jonelle Rowe

Opis

More than 10 years ago, with funding from the Connecticut State Depart ment of Education and the encouragement of its consultant on early child hood special education, Virginia Volk, we began our studies offamilies of infants who were hospitalized on the newborn intensive care unit of the John Dempsey Hospital located at the University of Connecticut Health Center. BettyJo McGrade, Deborah Allen, and Maria McQueeney played pivotal roles in the early years ofthis research program. Additional funding from the National March of Dimes Foundation, the University of Con necticut Research Foundation, and the National Institute ofMental Health prepared the ground for the study we describe in this book. The study began in 1984 through a National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research center grant to the University of Connecticut Pediatric Research and Training Center, directed by Robert Greenstein and then by Mary Beth Bruder. LindaWalkercoordinated the project and conducted the interviews with families before hospital discharge. Pamela Higgins conducted all follow-up interviews and assisted with data manage ment and analysis. Elizabeth Trueb Roscher provided support services to a portion of the fanrilies who were studied. Deborah Begin transcribed interviews and handled the administrative details of the project. Richard Mendola was theconsultanton data analysis and the selectionofcomputer software and hardware.

Spis treści

1 Introduction.- The Psychological Challenges of Newborn Intensive Care.- Plan of the Book.- 2 Background and Description of the Study.- The Medical Setting of the Newborn Intensive Care Unit.- The Health and Development of Newborn Intensive Care Unit Graduates.- Methods and Procedures.- 3 The Search for Meaning.- Order and Purpose.- Benefits and Gains.- Downward Comparison.- 4 The Search for Mastery.- The Benefits of Personal Control.- Retrospective Control Appraisals.- Expectancies of Control Over Childrens’ Outcome.- Expectancies of Control Over Future Pregnancies.- Comforting Alternatives to the Perception of Personal Control.- 5 The Search for Causes.- Causal Searching.- A Taxonomy of Causal Beliefs.- Two Types of Self-Blame for Aversive Events.- Consequences of Self-Attributions.- Behavioral Self-Blame and Guilt.- The Emotional Costs of Blaming Others.- 6 Coping Strategies in the Hospital.- A Definition of Coping.- Coping and Adjustment to Stressful Events.- Descriptive Findings.- Correlates of Coping Strategies.- Coping Predictors of Mother and Child Outcomes.- 7 The Search for Social Support.- The Benefits of Social Support.- Appraisals of Support During the Hospitalization.- The Need for Support.- Appraisals of Support After Discharge.- Social Network Correlates of Adaptation at 6 Months.- Social Network Predictors of 18-Month Outcomes.- Coping Strategies and Support.- 8 Mothers’ Remembrances of Newborn Intensive Care.- Memories of the Hospitalization.- Are Memories Perceived as Helpful or Harmful?.- The Emotional Significance of Involuntary Memories.- Predicting Mothers’ Emotional Response to Reminders.- Intrusive Thoughts and Avoidance of Reminders.- 9 Mothers, Fathers, and Couples.- Distress and Well-Being.- Appraisals of Control, Outcome, and Meaning.- Coping Strategies.- Appraisals of Coping Differences.- Appraisals of Social Support.- Perceived Impact on the Marital Relationship.- 10 Summary and Discussion.- Integrative Analyses.- Review and Discussion.- Meeting Parents’ Need for Support.- Implications for Helping.- References.