Post‐traumatic growth in parents after infants’ neonatal intensive care unit hospitalisation

Aims and objectives To determine the incidence and severity of post‐traumatic growth in a group of parents of children hospitalised in the intensive care unit in the past. Background A premature birth or a birth with life‐threatening conditions is a traumatic event for the parents and may lead to a number of changes, some of which are positive, known as post‐traumatic growth. Method The survey covered 106 parents of 67 infants aged 3–12 months. An original questionnaire and standardised research tools were used in the study: Impact Event Scale – Revised, Perceived Stress Scale, COPE Inventory: Positive Reinterpretation and Growth, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, Post‐traumatic Growth Inventory and Parent and Infant Characteristic Questionnaire. Results Due to a stepwise backward variables selection, we found three main factors that explain post‐traumatic growth: post‐traumatic stress symptoms, positive reinterpretation and growth and dichotomic variable infants’ survival. This model explained 29% of the post‐traumatic growth variation. Similar models that were considered separately for mothers and fathers showed no significantly better properties. Conclusion Post‐traumatic growth was related to a lesser extent to sociodemographic variables or the stressor itself, and related to a far greater extent to psychological factors. Relevance to clinical practice Our study highlights the fact that post‐traumatic growth in the parents of neonates hospitalised in the neonatal intensive care units remains under‐evaluated.