Chronic Illness and Preterm Infants: Family Stress and Support Issues

As the survival rate for children with complex medical conditions has increased, the body of knowledge regarding childhood chronic illness has grown. While the initial focus of this literature was the effect of the illness on the child, recent studies have focused on chronic illness and broader family issues. The transactional and family systems perspectives suggest the need for longitudinal studies of chronically ill infants from the point of diagnosis. Although a few studies of relatively healthy preterm infants have documented family stress levels, there is a paucity of research on the effects of parenting a very low birthweight infant with complex medical needs. The Chronically Ill Infant Intervention (CIII) Project and its broad based interdisciplinary intervention is used to illustrate the changing needs of this population. Preliminary analyses of specific intervention needs during the infants' first 18 months are discussed in relation to the reduction of family stress.