Mother's mental health, mother-child relationship, and family functioning 3 months after a preschooler's head injury

Objective: Investigate mothers' mental health, mother-child relationship, and family functioning 3 months after preschool children's head trauma and hospital discharge. Design: Prospective survey. Setting: Seven hospitals; families' homes. Participants: Eighty mothers of children (ages 3-6) with head trauma. Measures: Perceived injury severity, Mental Health Inventory, Parental Stressor Scale taken in pediatric intensive care unit 24 to 48 hours after admission; Mental Health Inventory, Parenting Stress Index, FACES II, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support taken at 3 months postdischarge. Results: Injury severity had negative effects on mothers' mental health at 3 months after discharge, but not on the mother-child relationship and the family's functioning. Mothers' baseline mental health and ongoing support had positive effects on mother-child relationship and family adaptability. Conclusions: Mothers with greater stress and poorer mental health during their child's hospitalization may be at risk for negative mother-child and family outcomes. Interventions that decrease parents' stress during hospitalization and promote ongoing social support after discharge may diminish this risk.