[Effects of Kangaroo Care on anxiety, maternal role confidence, and maternal infant attachment of mothers who delivered preterm infants].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Kangaroo Care(KC) on anxiety, maternal role confidence, and maternal infant attachment of mothers who delivered preterm infants.


METHODS
The research design was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest. Data was collected from September 1. 2006 to June 20. 2007. The participants were 22 mothers in the experimental group and 21 in the control group. KC was applied three times per day, for a total of ten times in 4 days to the experimental group.


RESULTS
The degree of anxiety was statistically significantly different between the two groups but maternal role confidence and maternal infant attachment was statistically insignificant.


CONCLUSIONS
This data suggests that KC was effective for mothers anxiety relief but it was not effective for maternal role confidence and maternal infant attachment of mothers. The implications for nursing practice and directions for future research need to be discussed.
Lee
Sang Bok
SB
The Graduate School of Nursing, Kyung Hee University, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea.
Shin
Hye Sook
HS
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007224:Infant Care / Q000379:methods*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000523:psychology*; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D017283:Neonatal Nursing