Maternal causal attributions at hospital discharge of high-risk infants.

Interviews were conducted at hospital discharge with mothers of 43 infants with severe perinatal complications posing risks to development. Information gathered included mothers' beliefs about the causes of the infant's medical problems, expectations of caretaking difficulties, and self-reported mood on the Profile of Mood States. Of the various demographic characteristics studied, only maternal parity was related to causal attributions, with mothers of later-born infants more likely to blame themselves and mothers of first-born infants more likely to blame others and to attribute the infant's condition to chance. Mothers who blamed others reported greater mood disturbance and greater anticipated caretaking problems than did mothers who attributed the infant's condition to a maternal behavior during pregnancy. These findings were discussed in relation to studies of attributional processes and coping with misfortune.