PURPOSES:
to analyze the possible relationship between the difficulty in setting up the experience of motherhood and the presence of risk indices to child development as well as the interference or not of psychosocial and obstetric variables on both aspects.
METHODS:
quantitative and descriptive type, with comparative casual character on the behavioral manifestations of the mother-infant interactive process. The sample consisted of 182 mothers and their babies, these born at term or preterm, at a university hospital in the central area of the Brazilian southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. A semi-structured interview about the experience of motherhood took place with mothers and a protocol of child development indices with the dyad was applied. Statistical analysis was applied on the crossing of the results of both assessments.
RESULTS:
the presence of difficulties in setting up the experience of motherhood was statistically related to the presence of risk to child development. Psychosocial and obstetric variables showed no significant interference in the results.
CONCLUSIONS:
they systematize the arguments presented and highlight that the difficulties in setting up the experience of motherhood are major risk factors for the onset of risk indicators to child development, as changes in the behavior of those who exercise the maternal role are already reflected in the initial protoconversation of the mother-infant dyad, which may create a risk to child development in general and language acquisition in particular.
Communication; Child Psychology; Anxiety; Mother-Child Relations
