Order Description

How effective are parenting interventions for improving outcomes of infants born preterm?

Support your answer with empirical evidence from at least two of the following papers:

Abdallah, B., Badr, L. K., & Hawwari, M. (2013). The efficacy of massage on short and long term

outcomes in preterm infants. Infant Behavior & Development, 36(4), 662-669.

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2013.06.009.

Landsem, I. P., Handegård, B. H., Ulvund, S. E., Tunby, J., Kaaresen, P. I., & Rønning, J. A.

(2015). Does an early intervention influence behavioral development until age 9 in children born

prematurely? Child Development, 86(4), 1063-1079. doi:10.1111/cdev.12368.

Meijssen, D., Wolf, M., Koldewijn, K., Houtzager, B. A., van Wassenaer, A., Tronick, E., Kok, J &

van Baar, A. (2010). The effect of the Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program on

mother-infant interaction after very preterm birth. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51

(11), 1287-1295. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02237.x.

Welch, M. G., Firestein, M. R., Austin, J., Hane, A. A., Stark, R. I., Hofer, M. A., Garland, M.,

Glickstein, S.B., Burnelli, S.A., Ludwig, R.J. & Myers, M. (2015). Family nurture intervention in

the neonatal intensive care unit improves social?relatedness, attention, and neurodevelopment of

preterm infants at 18 months in a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Child Psychology and

Psychiatry, 56(11), 1202-1211. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12405

The textbook cites several studies from 1968 to 2005 suggesting that premature babies experience

significant positive effects on their development from interventions that focus on stimulation and

on facilitating parental contact. To what extent is this conclusion supported, challenged, or

extended by more recent studies?

Introduction (1 paragraph)
• Define the ground. What is the point of the question and why is it of interest?
• Is there conflicting evidence?
• Are there recent developments?
• Tell the reader your explicit plan for the paper. It’s okay to preface your conclusion here too,

as long as the evidence presented in the rest of the paper supports it.

Body (3-4 paragraphs)
• Try to lay out an argument, rather than just give a description.
• If there are two viable sides to the topic, use, “On the one hand….but on the other…”
• Another structure is to set out an explanation and then try to knock it down with questions.
• Include original source material from at least two of the papers listed.
• Support every claim by describing and citing evidence.
• Some factors (suggested in lecture) on which ‘effectiveness’ might depend:
o Nature of intervention: What behaviour/outcome does the programme aim to improve?
o Infant characteristics: How similar are the infants across intervention types?
o Intervention duration and/or intensity: Is more simply better?
o Length of follow-up: How short- or long-term are the outcomes being measured?
o Outcome measure: How are the benefits measured? (Physically, cognitively, etc.)

Conclusion (1 paragraph)
• Where does this leave us? What is the answer to the question you are being asked?
• What are the remaining questions?
• What are the practical implications for parents? For society?
• Can you suggest any ways forward?

How many references are expected?
At least two, from the four target papers. You may also use additional references to support your

claims if needed, but not at the expense of under-developing the argument based on two target

papers. You may use secondary sources from the textbook. You may also wish to use two examples by

Thoman et al. (1995) on the breathing bear with preterm infants, or Scafidi et al. (1990) on

massage stimulating growth in preterm infants. Avoid covering too many sources in too little detail

to sufficiently support your argument construction. It would be hard to cover all four target

papers in the same degree of detail within a 1,500-word essay.