Exploring health visiting professionals' evaluations of early parent-infant interactions

Abstract

Abstract Objective: To examine the accuracy of Health Visitors (HVs) evaluations of the quality of parent-infant interactions. Background: HVs have been identified as key professionals in the early identification of difficulties in parent-infant interactions. The aim of this study was to explore how accurately HVs, Family Health Nurses (FHNs) and Community Nursery Nurses (CNNs) evaluate early parent-infant interactions. Method: A sample of 56 HVs, 4 FHNs and 14 CNN recruited from two National Health Service (NHS) Trusts, viewed video footage of six parent-infant interactions which had been categorised as ‘sensitive’, ‘mixed’, and ‘problematic’ using the CARE-Index. Participants evaluated the quality of the parent-infant interactions shown in these videos using the Parent-Infant Interaction Rating Questionnaire (PIIRQ). Results: On average, participants correctly rated the problematic videos as lowest in quality, the mixed as higher in quality than the problematic videos, and the sensitive videos as highest in quality. Interestingly, within the problematic category participants rated the ‘unresponsive’ pattern of interaction as significantly lower in quality than the ‘controlling’ interaction. Conclusions: The findings suggest participants were relatively accurate in their evaluations of parent-infant interactions. However, they indicate that participants were more likely to be concerned about unresponsive, as opposed to controlling, interactive behaviours. Recommendations for further research include exploration of potential differences in how health-visiting professionals evaluate particular patterns of parent-infant interactions.