The behaviour of 3‐year‐old children who were born preterm

摘要

SummaryThe behaviour of 3‐year‐old children born preterm was compared with that of full‐term children of the same age. The preterm group were born between 32 and 37 weeks gestation, and weighed between 1500 g and 2500 g at birth, and thus (in comparison to even earlier, lower birth weight babies) comprised a ‘low risk’ group. The children and their mothers were interviewed at home and information obtained about the following: behaviour, the number of accidents requiring medical attention, language development, maternal mental health and demographic data, the preterm group did not show an excess of behaviour problems overall but they did show significantly more problems when certain individual behaviours were considered, namely sleep related problems, tempers and dependence. The preterm group had also had significantly more accidents. The nature of the behavioural differences suggested they represented styles of parental management rather than neurological impairment in the preterm group. There was no evidence of language delay in either group and no significant association between child behaviour and maternal mental health. This study showed that consideration of socioeconomic factors is important. Children from manual socioeconomic groups showed significantly more behaviour problems than children from non‐manual groups, and mothers from manual groups had significantly poorer me