Parents' perception about their preterm child's social interaction reaching school age

A key element in social development is interaction with others. Preterm infants
have an increased risk for problems in this aspect. We aimed to gain insight into
parents’ perception about their preterm child’s social interaction upon reaching
school age. Twelve caregivers of preterm infants aged five to eight years
participated in in-depth interviews. The children were born after a pregnancy of
less than 36 weeks. All participants live in the northern part of the Netherlands.
The level of education of the caregivers varied between lower vocational
education to university. Parents informed us about their child being a little
fighter, having issues of coping with their disabilities in social contexts, and how
their child withdraws from situations that are overly stimulating. They also
expressed their concerns about the future, how they encourage their child, and
how they experience the transition to primary school. Parents’ experiences
concerning the social interaction of their preterm child can be categorized into
eight themes of processes in social interaction: child factors, self-regulation, realtime
social interaction, long-term social interaction, parental factors, parenting,
social environment, and social experiences. In supporting preterm children, it is
recommended to focus on the relatedness between real-time social interaction
experiences and long-term outcomes.