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Biomedical subjects

M Ostberg

Publications and source records attributed to M Ostberg.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Parental stress in families of 2 year old extremely low birthweight infants.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the parental stress in the families of 2 year old extremely low birthweight (ELBW) infants with that in control families, and to compare the stress of mothers with that of fathers. METHODS: The study population included all parents of ELBW infants (birth weight < 1000 g and gestational age at least 22 gestational weeks) born between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1997 in Helsinki University Hospital and followed at the hospital's neuropaediatric department. The parents of full term, healthy infants born subsequent to each ELBW infant were eligible for the control group. The Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ) translated into Finnish was completed by parents during the neurological assessment visit at 2 years of age. RESULTS: No significant differences were found in total SPSQ or subscale scores when mothers of ELBW infants were compared with control mothers. Nor did the scores of fathers of ELBW infants differ from the scores of control fathers. However, in the comparison of all mothers with all fathers, several differences were found: mothers indicated significantly more distress than fathers with respect to role restriction, incompetence, and spouse relationship problems, and fathers indicated significantly more distress on the social isolation subscale. CONCLUSION: The study shows that, although the birth of an ELBW infant is a stressful event for parents, most parents seem to have recovered well by the time the child has reached the age of 2. In both control families and those of ELBW infants, the overall stress of mothers seemed to be higher than that of fathers.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

A structural modeling approach to the understanding of parenting stress.

Tested and cross-validated a multidimensional model of predictors of parenting stress on data from a population-based sample of Swedish mothers (N = 1,081) with children ages 6 months to 3 years. The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire study, focusing on the explanation of variance in parenting stress. Structural equation modeling procedures permitted disentanglement of total, direct, and indirect effects. A Swedish instrument based on parts of the Parent Domain in the Parenting Stress Index was used as a measure of stress. The results provided general support for the proposed model. High workload, low social support, perception of the child as fussy-difficult, negative life events, child caretaking hassles, more children in the family, and high maternal age related directly to more stress. Child irregularity contributed indirectly to mother's experienced stress. No buffering effects of social support were found. Forty-eight percent of the variance in the parenting stress measure was explained by the model. Implications for interventions were discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Parental stress, psychosocial problems and responsiveness in help-seeking parents with small (2-45 months old) children.

Experienced parental stress in 75 mothers and 65 fathers seeking help for their young child (M = 14.5 months; SD = 9.4 months) in a Specialist Child Health Centre was examined and related to child problem load, psychosocial problems and parental problems in responding to the child's signals and demands. Maternal stress level was compared with a population-based sample of 1500 mothers with children of similar ages. The measure of parental stress was a revised Swedish version of the American Parenting Stress Index (Parent Domain). Mothers in the clinical sample indicated higher levels of parental stress compared to fathers in the same families and to mothers in the comparison sample. A clear association was found between higher stress and a global clinical assessment of parental unresponsiveness to the child. Child problem load was associated with mothers' overall stress level. A clinical estimate of the parents' psychosocial situation was also associated with mothers' and fathers' stress level, and gave a large unique contribution to the variability in mothers' stress scores. It was concluded that focus in intervention programs should be on the whole family, and that the father should be seen as a resource that might well be more involved in the caretaking of the child. The study also clearly demonstrated the discriminant and construct validity of the parental stress instrument.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

A measure of parental stress in mothers with small children: dimensionality, stability and validity.

Self-reported parental stress was investigated in three samples of mothers with small children, using a Swedish version of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). Dimensionality in experienced stress using items from six PSI Parent Domain subscales and eight new items was examined in factor analyses of data from a nationwide representative sample. Cross-validation proved the chosen factor pattern to be stable. Based on an oblique 5-factor solution new subscales were constructed. A second order factor analysis indicated influence from a higher order factor, seen as a general parental stress construct. High alpha coefficients revealed that homogeneous subscales had been formed. Test-retest correlations indicated good stability over a mean time period of 30 days. Influences from maternal background variables were found, but no relation to child age or gender. Global estimates of parental stress, reported child problems, mothers' scoring on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and two measures of social support all correlated significantly with overall parental stress, and with some subscales. The justification of the subscale approach to parental stress was discussed. It was concluded that the PSI in its present form could be used as a reliable and valid instrument for measuring experienced parental stress in mothers of young children.

Adolescent↗