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P50 Sensory Gating in Infants
Published on: December 26, 2013
Parental professional help-seeking for infant sleep
Pei-Wen Hsu1, Wei-Wen Wu1, Yi-Ching Tung2
1School of Nursing, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Insights
Parents often misunderstand infant sleep, leading to delayed professional help-seeking. Unsatisfactory healthcare experiences further deter parents from seeking support for infant sleep concerns.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Medicine
- Parental Health Behaviors
- Qualitative Research
Background:
- Infant sleep issues are a common parental concern.
- Limited understanding exists regarding parental help-seeking behaviors for infant sleep problems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore parental perceptions and experiences with professional help-seeking for infant sleep concerns.
- To identify factors influencing parental decisions to seek or avoid professional sleep support.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study utilizing audio-taped interviews with 20 parents of 12-month-old infants.
- Interviews conducted in comfortable settings (hospital or home).
- Thematic content analysis to identify patterns in help-seeking experiences.
Main Results:
- Three key themes emerged: uncertainty about infant sleep, self-reliance ('I can handle it'), and dissatisfaction with professional services.
- Parental knowledge gaps and misunderstandings about infant sleep significantly impact help-seeking motivation.
- Negative experiences with healthcare professionals (e.g., ambivalent attitudes, insufficient assessment) reduce willingness to seek future help.
Conclusions:
- Parental professional help-seeking for infant sleep is complex, influenced by numerous barriers.
- Addressing parental knowledge deficits and ensuring adequate attention during well-infant visits can improve healthcare service utilization for infant sleep issues.
Aims And Objectives:
To explore the perceptions and experiences of parental professional help-seeking for infant sleep and sleep-related concerns.
Background:
Infant sleep is a frequent concern for parents. However, very little is known about the reasons parents seek, do not seek or delay seeking professional attention about their concerns related to infant sleep.
Design And Methods:
A qualitative study design was used. Twenty audio-taped interviews with parents of healthy 12-month-old infants were conducted at a university-affiliated hospital or parents' homes depending on where parents felt more comfortable discussing their personal views and medical help-seeking experiences. Thematic content analysis was performed to determine specific patterns and similarities within and between interview data.
Findings:
Three main themes developed from the interviews were as follows: (i) uncertainty about infant sleep; (ii) I can handle infant sleep; and (iii) I am not satisfied with the professional services provided for infant sleep. Overall, parents knew little about or misunderstood infant sleep behaviours. Lack of proper information and knowledge about infant sleep influenced parents' motivation for professional help-seeking and help-receiving. Parents who have consulted a healthcare professional but received unsatisfactory responses, such as an ambivalent attitude or insufficient assessment, reported being less motivated or unwilling to seek medical help again.
Conclusion:
Our study demonstrates the complexity of parental professional help-seeking and receiving for infant sleep. Findings suggest that parents perceive a wide range of barriers that influence the likelihood that they will seek professional advice for infant sleep.
Relevance To Clinical Practice:
Reducing knowledge barriers and providing adequate attention at all well-infant visits would facilitate parental use of healthcare services to manage problematic infant sleep behaviours.
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