Hope in Parents of Very-Low Birth Weight Infants and its Association with Parenting Stress and Quality of Life

Abstract Purpose Being a parent of a very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infant can be stressful. We aimed to describe parental hope 42 months after the birth of a VLBW infant and determine whether there is an association between hope and parenting stress with quality of life (QoL), respectively. Design and Methods Fifty-nine parents of VLBW infants completed questionnaires about hope, parenting stress and QoL. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) and linear regression models were used to examine the relationship between the selected variables. To compare groups, t -test was used and Cohen's d for effect size was calculated. Results Parents of VLBW infants were more hopeful than the general population ( p p  = 0.041) and higher parenting stress (p = 0.041) than parents of infants with birth weight 1000–1500 g. Conclusions Hope and parenting stress were both independent determinants of QoL. Parents of the presumably sickest infants had less hope and higher parenting stress than parents of VLBW infants with a birth weight over 1000 g. Hope should be further explored as a coping mechanism in parents of VLBW infants. Practice Implications The clinical implications of the strong association between hope, parenting stress and QoL remain to be determined, but reducing stress and strengthening hope seem to be important. This should be taken into account both at hospital discharge and at follow-up, especially for lower-birth-weight infants.