Does the development of executive functioning in infants born preterm benefit from maternal directiveness?

Objective Problems in early development of executive functioning may underlie the vulnerability and individual variability of infants born preterm for behavioral and learning problems. Parenting behaviors may aggravate or temper this increased risk for dysfunction. This study assessed how maternal parenting behaviors predict individual differences in early development of executive functioning in infants born preterm, and whether this varies with infant temperament, i.e., self-regulation. Methods Participants were 76 infants born preterm (≤ 36 weeks' gestation and <2500 g birth weight) and their mothers. Maternal sensitive responsiveness and directiveness were observed during a mother-infant interaction situation at 7, 10 and 14 months corrected age. At the same ages, executive functioning was measured using the A-not-B task. An infant self-regulation questionnaire (IBQ-R) was completed by mothers at 7 months. Results After controlling for perinatal risk factors, Multivariate Latent Growth Modeling showed that consistently higher levels of maternal directiveness predicted a stronger increase in A-not-B performance, which did not vary with infant self-regulation. No relationship between maternal sensitive responsiveness and development in A-not-B performance in infants born preterm was found. Conclusions These results suggest that preterm infants' early executive functioning development in the first year of life may benefit from a more and consistent directive approach by their mothers. These findings have important implications for early intervention programs aimed at facilitating preterm infants' development.