SynthesisJournal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association2020
A global perspective on parental stress in the neonatal intensive care unit: a meta-analytic study.
Synthesis in Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Parental Stress and Well-Being: A Meta-analysis.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Multisensory stimulation by mothers: impact on neonatal pain and maternal anxiety during heel blood collection: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Trial
- Evaluating a family-centered care intervention for reducing post-traumatic stress and aggression among parents of infants with congenital anomalies: a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Moderate-To-Late Preterm Infants Benefit From the Early Collaborative Intervention: Primary Outcomes of an RCT.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2025Trial
- The effect of paternal anxiety on mother-infant bonding in neonatal intensive care.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Trial
- Bonding, Relaxation, Separation, and Connection: Expressing Human Milk While Videoconferencing with the Hospitalized Premature Infant.Breastfeeding medicine : the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine · 2022Trial
- Maternal Anxiety, Infant Stress, and the Role of Live-Performed Music Therapy during NICU Stay in The Netherlands.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Parents' Experiences of Psychosocial Support in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
- Impact of live music therapy compared with storytelling on maternal depression and psychological distress in mothers of preterm infants: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2026Article
- The Influence of Child Welfare Involvement on Parent Engagement Among Immigrant Families Who Receive Home Visiting Services.Child maltreatment · 2026Article
- Psychological reflections of guilt among mothers of infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit: a multiple moderator effect analysis.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Article
- High levels of parenting stress and trauma despite age-appropriate developmental outcomes following perinatal asphyxia: a cross-sectional observational study.BMJ paediatrics open · 2026Observational
- Motherhood in crisis: lived experiences of mothers with babies admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit in Northern Uganda.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- The NeuroSense PremmieEd Parenting Educational Intervention (PremmieSense)-A Neuroprotective Intervention for Preterm Infant-Parent Dyads: Reported Using the TIDieR Framework.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Language environments of infants in the NICU improve after a brief parent education intervention.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Article
- Adaptation and Validation of the Parental Stressor Scale: NICU for Spanish Populations.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Article
- Preterm Infant and Caregiver Outcomes After Maternal Appendectomy During Pregnancy.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Person-Centered Exploration of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Stressors and Social Support in Parenting Very Preterm Infants: A Cross-Sectional Study on Risks and Resources in Italy and Portugal.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Resource Use and Costs of Nurse Navigator Support for Parents of High-Risk Infants After Discharge from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe Parental Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS:NICU) is a well-validated tool to assess different sources of stress in parents during the NICU hospitalization of their infant. The present meta-analytic study assessed the relative impact of different NICU-related sources of parental stress in a pool of studies conducted in a wide set of different countries. Also, differences in stress levels by parent gender and country, as well as the impact of infants' neonatal characteristics and clinical conditions were explored.
methodsRecords were searched on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science (January 1993-December 2019). A purposive open search string was adopted: ["PSS:NICU"] OR ["PSS-NICU"] OR ["Parental Stressor Scale"]. A multiple random-effect meta-analysis was conducted on data from 53 studies extracted by independent coders.
resultsParental role alteration emerged as the greatest source of stress for both mothers and fathers. Mothers reported higher stress levels compared to fathers. A significant difference emerged only for the subscale related to sights and sounds physical stimuli. No significant effects of infants' neonatal characteristics (gestational age, birth weight) and clinical conditions (comorbidities) emerged. A marginal positive effect of NICU length of stay emerged on the global level of parents' stress.
conclusionsThe current meta-analysis underlines that parental stress related to NICU admission is a worldwide healthcare issue. Immediate and tailored support to parents after the birth of their at-risk infant should be prioritized to reduce parental stress and to promote mothers and fathers' emotional well-being and new-born neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.