Mothers' attitudes and their children's behaviors in 3-year-olds born prematurely and at term.

A sample of 94 mothers and their 3-year-old children participated in a cross-sectional study to measure maternal overprotective attitudes and children's behavior problems. Mothers in the full-term group (n = 47) were matched to mothers in the preterm group (n = 47) on maternal age, maternal education, and marital status. The groups were balanced for the child's gender, birth order, and mother's nationality. The subjects answered the Mother-Child Relationship Evaluation (MCRE) to measure maternal attitudes and the Behavior Screening Questionnaire (BSQ) to measure behavior problems in preschoolers. Overall, children born prematurely have the same incidence of behavior problems as children born full-term. However, the subgroup of preterms who had respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) had a higher incidence of behavior problems. Conversely, the results suggest that mothers of children born prematurely without RDS have more overprotective attitudes towards their children. Maternal overprotection is minimally associated with behavior problems.