Expected and Actual Preterm-Birth and Parental Distress: Impact on Children's Mental Health

A follow-up survey is conducted based on a previous study on psychological distress in parents with preterm infants (NCT01974531). Medical records and previous questionnaire data will be used for grouping the children based on threat of preterm birth, actual preterm birth and term birth as well as to assess the risk and protective factors in the peripartum period.

Parents have been informed within the first study part that a second study part, including their children, would have been followed. Parents were recontacted and asked for participation via telephone or email. Those who agreed, will be contacted via questionnaires in a first step and then in a second step interviewed regarding their own and their children's mental health. The investigators use the following questionnaires to assess children's mental health: Child Behaviour Checklist 6-18R (CBCL 6-18R), Conners 3rd Edition, Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS). In addition, the investigators conduct clinical interviews with parents on their children's mental health and assess children's cognitive competencies using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V). The following questionnaires are used to assess parental risk and protective factors: State-Trait Anxiety-Depression Inventory (STADI), Parental Stress Scale (PSS), Parenting Scale Short Form (PS), Big Five Inventory Short Form (BFI).

Children and their parents must have participated in the previous study. Inclusion criteria of the previous study regarding the parents were:

• Pregnant women and their partners from the 24th week of gestation on
• 18 years of age

Exclusion criteria

of the previous study were:

• Psychiatric, mainly psychotic diseases
• Drug abuse
• Severe neurological disorders
• Stillbirth