Academic outcomes of very low birth weight infants: the influence of mother-child relationships.

It is commonly accepted that parent-child interactions are bidirectional and complex and are influenced by many different factors. The current study examined the academic and behavioral skills in the early elementary years of preterm infants and the influence of their early mother-child interactions on these skills. Using a sample of 21 premature infants and their mothers, this study found that positive early interactions during feeding were related to later mutual enjoyment during a teaching task at school age, but early maternal depression was not. Early risk factors of premature infants, specifically the number of days spent on a ventilator, were positively related to maternal perceptions of hassle associated with feeding and negatively related to maternal sensitivity during feeding. Finally, mutual enjoyment was strongly associated with language, cognitive, and behavioral skills at school age. These results suggest that it is not only the infant risk factors following a premature birth that influence later development but also the parent-child relationship and emphasize the importance of understanding and promoting these early positive parent-child interactions for premature infants.