A picture of infant, parents and family peculiarities in a group of families with premature babies.

Introduction: parent-preterm infant relationship is complex, and some relational patterns forecast greater psychological risk than others. Both temperamental infant peculiarities and quality of caregiving (positive parenting and parental stress) seem to be important predictors for later outcomes in preterm infants ,and may be considered as foci for developmental interventions. Aims of the study: (a) to investigate the quality of family interactive dynamics; (b) to draw a picture of the peculiarities of these families in terms of child temperament, self perception of parenting skills and parental stress. In order to analyze these variables we have performed descriptive and correlational statistics. Method: the target group is recruited at S.C.I.A.F. (Padua, Italy) and is composed by 29 families with premature infants. The correct age mean is 23.50 months (SD 13.5) and the chronological age mean is 26.03 months(SD 13.53). At the beginning the families were involved in a psychodiagnostic assessment which included: Lausanne Trilogue Play(Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999), Italian Questionnaire of Temperament (Axia, 2002), Family Empowerment Scale (Koren, De Chillo & Friesen, 1992) and Parent Stress Index- Short Form (Abidin, 2008). Results: families'recruitment is still ongoing, then complete results will be available by 2016. From the preliminary analysis on the initial subgroup (6 families) we have noticed that (a) descriptives statistics indicate an appropriate quality of family interactive dynamics; (b) scores about child temperament and parental stress are in line with those of non clinical population. Conclusions: preliminary results indicate the absence of significant peculiarities both in preterm children and parents in terms of variables investigated.Results are discussed for their implications for preventive interventions in families with premature infants in terms of parental support intervention.