Division of Maternal-Child Psychiatry, Department of Psychosocial Medicine, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan.
PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e38238. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038238. Epub 2012 Jul 27.
We propose a new play activity intervention program for mothers and children. Our interdisciplinary program integrates four fields of child-related sciences: neuroscience, preschool pedagogy, developmental psychology, and child and maternal psychiatry. To determine the effect of this intervention on child and mother psychosocial problems related to parenting stress and on the children's cognitive abilities, we performed a cluster randomized controlled trial.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants were 238 pairs of mothers and typically developing preschool children (ages 4-6 years old) from Wakakusa kindergarten in Japan. The pairs were asked to play at home for about 10 min a day, 5 days a week for 3 months. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group by class unit. The Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (for mothers), the Goodenough Draw-a-Man intelligence test (DAM), and the new S-S intelligence test (NS-SIT) (for children) were administered prior to and 3 months after the intervention period. Pre-post changes in test scores were compared between the groups using a linear mixed-effects model analysis. The primary outcomes were the Total score on the child domain of the PSI (for child psychosocial problems related to parenting stress), Total score on the parent domain of the PSI (for maternal psychosocial problems related to parenting stress), and the score on the DAM (for child cognitive abilities). The results of the PSI suggested that the program may reduce parenting stress. The results of the cognitive tests suggested that the program may improve the children's fluid intelligence, working memory, and processing speed.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our intervention program may ameliorate the children's psychosocial problems related to parenting stress and increase their cognitive abilities.
UMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000002265.
我们提出了一个新的母婴游戏活动干预方案。我们的跨学科方案整合了四个与儿童相关的科学领域：神经科学、学前教育学、发展心理学以及儿童和母婴精神病学。为了确定该干预措施对与育儿压力相关的母婴心理社会问题以及儿童认知能力的影响，我们进行了一项群组随机对照试验。
方法/主要发现：参与者是来自日本若草幼儿园的 238 对母亲和发育正常的学龄前儿童（4-6 岁）。这些母子被要求每天在家中进行约 10 分钟的游戏，每周 5 天，持续 3 个月。参与者按照班级单位被随机分配到干预组或对照组。在干预前和干预后 3 个月，对母亲进行育儿压力指数（PSI）（母亲）、古德伊洛弗斯画人智力测验（DAM）和新 S-S 智力测验（NS-SIT）（儿童）测试。采用线性混合效应模型分析比较组间测试分数的变化。主要结局指标是 PSI 儿童领域的总分（与育儿压力相关的儿童心理社会问题）、PSI 父母领域的总分（与育儿压力相关的母亲心理社会问题）和 DAM 得分（儿童认知能力）。PSI 的结果表明，该方案可能减轻育儿压力。认知测试的结果表明，该方案可能提高儿童的流体智力、工作记忆和加工速度。
结论/意义：我们的干预方案可能改善儿童与育儿压力相关的心理社会问题，并提高他们的认知能力。
UMIN 临床试验注册 UMIN000002265。
