Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Social Development, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2023 Jan;64(1):136-144. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13679. Epub 2022 Aug 9.
Daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) during early infancy fosters the long-term development of children born preterm. This is the first randomized controlled trial assessing the potential beneficial effects of daily SSC on executive functioning and socio-emotional behavior of children born full-term. Whether children of mothers who experienced prenatal stress and anxiety benefitted more from SSC was also explored.
Pregnant women (N = 116) were randomly assigned to a SSC or care-as-usual (CAU) condition. Women in the SSC condition were instructed to perform one hour of SSC daily from birth until postnatal week five. Prenatal stress was measured with questionnaires on general and pregnancy-specific stress and anxiety completed by the mothers in gestational week 37. At child age three, mothers filled in questionnaires on children's executive functioning, and externalizing and internalizing behavior. Analyses were performed in an intention-to-treat (ITT), per-protocol, and dose-response approach. Netherlands Trial Register: NL5591.
In the ITT approach, fewer internalizing (95% CI = 0.11-1.00, U = 2148.50, r = .24, p = .001) and externalizing (95% CI = 0.04-2.62, t = 2.04, d = 0.38, p = .04) problems were reported in the SSC condition compared to the CAU condition. Multivariate analyses of variance did not show group differences on executive functioning. Additional analyses of covariance showed no moderations by maternal prenatal stress.
Current findings indicate that early daily SSC in full-term infants may foster children's behavioral development. Future replications, including behavioral observations of child behavior to complement maternal reports, are warranted.
在婴儿早期进行日常的皮肤接触（SSC）可以促进早产儿的长期发展。这是第一项评估日常 SSC 对足月出生儿童执行功能和社会情感行为潜在有益影响的随机对照试验。本研究还探讨了经历产前压力和焦虑的母亲的孩子是否从 SSC 中获益更多。
将孕妇（N=116）随机分配到 SSC 或常规护理（CAU）组。SSC 组的女性被指示从出生到产后第 5 周每天进行一小时的 SSC。母亲在妊娠第 37 周时通过一般和妊娠特异性压力和焦虑问卷来测量产前压力。在孩子三岁时，母亲填写了有关孩子执行功能、外化和内化行为的问卷。分析采用意向治疗（ITT）、方案内和剂量反应方法进行。荷兰试验注册处：NL5591。
在 ITT 方法中，SSC 组报告的内化（95%CI=0.11-1.00，U=2148.50，r=0.24，p=0.001）和外化（95%CI=0.04-2.62，t=2.04，d=0.38，p=0.04）问题较少。方差分析的多变量分析并未显示出两组在执行功能上的差异。协方差的附加分析表明，母亲的产前压力没有调节作用。
目前的研究结果表明，早期对足月婴儿进行日常 SSC 可能会促进儿童的行为发展。需要进一步的复制研究，包括对儿童行为的行为观察，以补充母亲的报告。
