Resumen

HAUSER, María Paulina; MILAN, Teresita Ana  y  OIBERMAN, Alicia. Mother-high-risk infant interactions: An application of cluster analysis in two contexts of interaction: NICU and Follow-up Offices. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2018, vol.35, n.2, pp.543-559. ISSN 1668-7027.

Early interactions may be different in the case of high-risk infants who require special care at birth and must remain hospitalized during their neonatal period. These babies are at high-risk for sequelae, especially those with a history of prematurity, low birth weight, neonatal conditions and important psychosocial problems. At the birth of a child with some difficulty, parents experience a multiplicity of feelings that result in the vicissitudes of interactions and the mother-father-child bond. In these cases, there is a greater relational risk, which is why there are greater possibilities for the appearance of dysfunctional bonding modalities. The objective of the research that is exposed was to know the way in which mother-high-risk infant interactions were deployed during hospitalization at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and in the Follow-up Office for High-Risk Children up to 12 months corrected gestational age of infants. The sample is made up of 36 mother-high-risk baby dyads. We used the Mother-Child Bond Observation Scale in the NICU during the period of hospitalization of the baby in the NICU. Observations were made when the mother entered the NICU to see her child while in the incubator. The first observation of the dyad should be made during the first month of life of the baby, performing the following with intervals of two or three days in order to know if there were variations with the course of hospitalization time, maturation and growth of the baby. At follow-up, spontaneous mother-child interactions that occurred in the natural observational context of the High-Risk Child Follow-Up Office were evaluated using the Mother-Child Bond Observation Scale. It was observed monthly to each dyad during the 15-25 minutes of the pediatric visit. The statistical technique of Cluster Analysis was used, which allowed to group the mother-infant dyads according to the characteristics of the interactions in the two observational contexts. The results allowed us to distinguish dyads who had difficulty interacting both in the NICU and during the medical exam at the Follow-up Office; other dyads were able to maintain rewarding interactions in the NICU and in the Follow-up Office for High-risk Children. Finally, other dyads interacted alternately during the first year of life, either because they established satisfactory interactions during the infant's hospitalization in the NICU, although later these interactions became significantly impoverished during the first year of life. Or had difficulties in interacting in neonatal therapy, which decreased considerably after discharge, with frequent and rewarding interactions observed during the infant's follow-up in the first year of life. The importance of the application of Cluster Analysis in the field of research in Psychology lies in the possibility of visualizing and grouping in a statistical way, in our case, the interactions according to their characteristics, in two different moments such as Hospitalization in NICU and in the Office of Follow-up for High-Risk Children. The use of the statistical technique of Cluster Analysis is novel in our environment and especially in the area of Perinatal Psychology.

Palabras clave : Interactions; Mother-High-risk baby; Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Follow-up Office for High-Risk Children; Cluster Analysis.

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