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A telephone intervention to reduce fatigue and symptom distress in mothers with difficult infants in the community
Author(s) -
Thome Marga,
Alder Beth
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00872.x
Subject(s) - distress , intervention (counseling) , medicine , psychiatry , clinical psychology
A telephone intervention to reduce fatigue and symptom distress in mothers with difficult infants in the community ¶ The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a telephone intervention to reduce fatigue and the resulting symptom distress of mothers in Iceland who reported having a behaviourally difficult infant of 2‐3 months of age. A sample of 78 mothers who reached distress criteria of depressive symptoms and parental stress was selected and randomly allocated in a controlled experimental study. In a brief intervention both maternal distress and infant difficulty were discussed. Results indicate a significant ( P < 0·001) intervention effect on fatigue and its side‐effects. It is concluded that intervention by telephone can be effective with fatigued mothers caring for a difficult infant.