The impact of perceived social support for parents of neonates

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  The impact of perceived social support on parenting self-efficacy for parents of infants admitted to a neonatal care unit

• IRAS ID

  303756

• Contact name

  Libby Barnardo

• Contact email

  libby.barnardo@hmc.ox.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Oxford

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 1 months, 18 days

• Research summary

  Research Summary
  Social support is the combination of both emotional and practical support and can be provided by a range of sources. Social support for new parents has been shown to improve their beliefs about their abilities to successfully look after their child, which is called parenting self-efficacy. Parents of children admitted to neonatal care units experience greater reduction in parenting self-efficacy compared to parents of full-term infants. Reduced parenting self-efficacy can impact the parent-infant relationship and have long-term negative consequences for the child’s health and wellbeing. The impact of social support on parenting self-efficacy has not yet been directly studied in a neonatal care unit (NCU) population. This is an important area to research as it will help neonatal services develop interventions that can better support the parent and therefore the child. The current study therefore aims to identify whether higher levels of social support, as perceived by parents, predicts more positive change in parenting self-efficacy over the duration of their stay in the unit. We will be recruiting parents of children who have been admitted to neonatal care services following birth. To investigate the impact of social support, we will ask the parents to complete questionnaires about their perceptions of social support and parenting self-efficacy at three time points; at admission, discharge and 4-weeks post discharge.

  Summary of Results
  Reason for the study

  We were interested in something called ‘parenting self-efficacy’ which is a mother’s self-belief in her capability to parent her child. This is known to promote the development of the baby and improve a mother’s wellbeing. Admission to a neonatal unit can interrupt the development of self-efficacy due to the unexpected separation between mother and child, so we were interested in what promotes self-efficacy in this setting. We were looking at whether social support (which includes practical and emotional support) from professional and personal relationships promotes self-efficacy in mothers of infants on a neonatal unit.

  Findings

  Sixty-nine mothers took part in this study and completed questionnaires about their experiences. Mothers most often indicated that their partners, parents, and nurses were sources of support for them. We also found that self-efficacy improved over time, and there was a strong relationship between social support and self-efficacy, with the level of support accessed at admission leading to greater self-efficacy a month after discharge.

  What the findings mean

  These findings suggest that mothers become more confident with greater experience of parenting their child, and that this is also helped by accessing support that meets their emotional needs, as well as their needs to understand and practice infant tasks. This means that having someone to listen and validate their feelings is important and should be combined with the more hands-on practical support. These findings emphasise the importance of mothers being able to access a range of support, from friends, family and professionals

• REC name

  South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  22/SW/0017

• Date of REC Opinion

  28 Mar 2022

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion