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Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Parenting style in the NICU is stable, measurable, and predictive of 2-year parenting style
Mary Lauren Neel1, Caitlin Kjeldsen2, Rachelle Srinivas2
1Emory University School of Medicine.
Objective:
To establish psychometric properties of Baby Care Questionnaire (BCQ) in preterm infants, individual level stability of BCQ scores from NICU to 2 years corrected gestational age (CGA), and to determine whether early BCQ scores predict 2-year parenting styles.
Study Design:
In this prospective study, the BCQ assessed early parental structure and attunement at 4 time points between NICU and 2-years CGA. The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) at 2-years evaluated authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles. Intraclass correlations analyzed reliability and Reliable Change Index (RCI) studied individual-level stability. Multivariate regression examined predictive properties.
Results:
n=162 parent/preterm infant dyads were followed sequentially. Cronbach's α BCQ structure and attunement were 0.9 and 0.8. RCI showed high individual level stability of both constructs. Higher early structure scores were associated higher 2-year authoritative scores.
Conclusions:
Early parenting characteristics beginning in the NICU are stable in infancy, measurable, reliable, and predictive of 2-year parenting styles. Early parental structure correlates with 2-year authoritative parenting style.
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Related Concept Videos
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Parenting
This style is strict and controlling, with little room for open dialogue. Authoritarian parents demand obedience and often enforce rules with minimal warmth. Children raised this way may lack social skills and initiative, usually comparing themselves to others unfavorably.
Authoritative...
Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
Theory of Romantic Attachment in Adulthood
The Nativist Approach
Attachment
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development