Assessing maternal competence and sensitivity to premature infants' cues

Because it is becoming increasingly evident that the sensitivity of mothers to their premature infants can affect the mother-infant relationship, means to assess maternal sensitivity to infants are essential. The Boston City Hospital Assessment of Parental Sensitivity (BCHAPS) was the tool used in this study to assess maternal competence and sensitivity to premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The concurrent validity of the tool was determined by examining the relation between scores on the BCHAPS and several maternal characteristics (i.e., family income, education, and parity) and infant characteristics (i.e., weight, gestational age, APGAR scores, and severity of illness). The predictive validity of the BCHAPS was determined by comparing the BCHAPS scores to mother-infant interaction behaviors when infants were 8 months old. Scores obtained on the BCHAPS correlated with mother-infant interaction scores at 8 months and to parity. There was no correlation between the BCHAPS scores and other maternal-infant characteristics. The results of this study indicate that the BCHAPS is a tool that can be used clinically to assess maternal behaviors in the NICU and that can predict the mother-infant relationship long after the discharge of the infant.