Table 4.

Greater parent Sensitivity and Nonhostility were associated with fewer Internalizing behaviors at 18 months corrected age among preterm children exposed to a higher number of skin-breaking procedures

	Child Internalizing
	Sensitivity† Model		Structuring† Model		Nonintrusiveness† Model		Nonhostility† Model
Predictors	B	P	B	P	B	P	B	P
EA †	−2.32	0.07	−1.31	0.40	0.22	0.85	−4.01	0.02
Neonatal pain (Number of skin breaks)	−19.08	0.129	−9.69	0.50	8.15	0.50	−45.76	0.02
EA† x neonatal pain	1.30	0.05	0.74	0.32	−0.19	0.75	2.32	0.006
Days on mechanical ventilation	−0.06	0.62	−0.05	0.64	−0.10	0.33	−0.05	0.59
Total morphine exposure	0.08	0.67	0.05	0.80	0.07	0.71	0.18	0.33
Illness severity on day 1	−0.004	0.96	−0.02	0.85	−0.01	0.89	−0.01	0.95
Gestational age group	0.12	0.97	0.39	0.90	0.78	0.79	0.22	0.94
Gender	−2.85	0.14	−3.15	0.12	−3.93	0.05	−2.43	0.20
Parenting stress	0.15	0.001	0.15	0.001	0.14	0.001	0.16	0.001
Parent’s years of education	−0.87	0.008	−0.81	0.01	−0.74	0.03	−0.82	0.01
Number of children in the home	−2.46	0.004	−2.29	0.009	−2.17	0.01	−2.25	0.007
Parent age	−0.13	0.49	−0.17	0.37	−0.23	0.21	−0.16	0.35
Bayley MDI	−0.05	0.56	−0.05	0.44	−0.06	0.35	−0.07	0.22
Adjusted R2	0.26*		0.23*		0.22*		0.31*

EA, Emotional Availability [10]; Bayley MDI, Bayley Mental Development Index [8].

^†The Generalized Linear Model was repeated four times: each time a different EA variable (Sensitivity, Structuring, Nonintrusiveness, Nonhostility) was entered into the model.

^*Computed using linear regression.

Parent Sensitivity and Nonhostility moderated the relationship between neonatal pain and Internalizing in children born very preterm at 18 months corrected age after adjusting for neonatal medical confounders (gestational age group [24–28 weeks gestational age or 29–32 weeks gestational age]), illness severity on day 1, days of mechanical ventilation, cumulative morphine exposure), concurrent environmental stressors (Parenting Stress, parent’s years of education, number of children in the home), parent age, child gender and cognition (Bayley MDI). Higher Parenting Stress, fewer maternal years of education and fewer children in the home were independently associated with greater Internalizing at 18 months corrected age in children born very preterm.