The Psychogenic Etiology of Premature Births

Abstract

The hypothesis that psychological factors are significant in the etiology of certain premature births is studied. The subjects were 30 women who delivered prematurely in the absence of any accountable medical factor and 30 matched control mothers of term infants. After psychiatric and psychologic clinical study, each case was scored on a rating scale of pertinent personality traits and studied statistically for discrimination of the two groups. To check rater bias, another psychologist performed a blind rerating of the 60 psychological protocols after cues relating to premature or term status were deleted. The premature group showed distinctive clinical and statistical differences, including more negative attitudes to the pregnancy, greater emotional immaturity, more body narcissism, and less adequate resolution of familial Medial problems. Based on the findings, a predictive self-reporting questionnaire test of prematurity was devised.