Grazyna Kmita

University of Warsaw | UW · Faculty of Psychology

Despite the impact of the COVID‐19 outbreak being largely negative on parents and children, for some families, lockdown could also bring about some positive effects, for example, increased emotional closeness, and more time for joint activity. The aim of the current study was to investigate cross‐sectionally the most important correlates of the pos...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has placed the healthcare system under substantial strain that has caused elevated psychological distress among healthcare workers (HCWs). Previous studies have found a high prevalence of burnout among HCWs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and have delineated some associated factors, but further research is ne...

Postpartum depression is more prevalent in mothers and fathers of preterm infants compared to parents of full-term infants and may have long-term detrimental consequences for parental mental health and child development. The temperamental profile of an infant has been postulated as one of the important factors associated with parental depressivenes...

This study examined the characteristics of the vocal behaviors of parents and preterm infants, as compared to their term-born peers, at three months of age. Potential links between specific features of parental IDS and infants’ vocal activity were also sought. We analyzed the frequencies and durations of vocalizations and pauses during the dyadic i...

Introduction During the COVID-19 pandemic people experience higher levels of negative emotions, as well as face many negative and intense emotions felt by others. Thus, it is important to look for risk and protective factors that allow and help individuals to regulate these negative emotions and adapt to the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Obj...

Background Previous studies carried out in different countries have indicated that young adults experienced higher levels of emotional distress, in the form of depressive and anxiety symptoms, than older age groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about which pandemic-related difficulties and factors may contribute to these fo...

Objective: Several researchers and clinicians have focused on the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for children and parents. However, we may suppose that some families may also experience positive aspects of the COVID-19 lockdown such as increased emotional closeness and more time for free play and creativity in parent-child relations...

Background Progressive ventricular dilatation after intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) in preterm infants has a very high risk of severe disability and death. Drainage, irrigation and fibrinolytic therapy (DRIFT), in a randomised controlled trial (RCT), reduced severe cognitive impairment at 2 years. Objective To assess if the cognitive advantage...

Background. Previous studies carried out in different countries indicated that young adults experience higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms than older age groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about which epidemic-related difficulties and factors may contribute to these forms of emotional distress in various age...

Introduction: Parenting self-efficacy (PSE) refers to parents' belief in their ability to perform the parenting role successfully, and derives from Bandura's concept of personal self-efficacy formulated within the social cognitive theory. PSE has been demonstrated to be a strong predictor of parenting functioning. At the same time, relatively less...

Objectives: Mood disturbances are the most prevalent mental health problems in expectant parents. The knowledge about the factors which increase the risk of perinatal depression is insufficient, especially in fathers. The aims of the present study were to estimate the prevalence and to compare mean levels of antenatal depression and anxiety as wel...

Background The drainage, irrigation and fibrinolytic therapy (DRIFT) trial, conducted in 2003–6, showed a reduced rate of death or severe disability at 2 years in the DRIFT compared with the standard treatment group, among preterm infants with intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and post-haemorrhagic ventricular dilatation. Objectives To compare co...

Objective: Infants ≤28 GA are at particular risk of psychomotor and neurological developmental disorder. They also remain at a higher risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by persistent deficits in communication/social interactions and restricted, repetitive behaviors, activities and interests. Monitoring their developme...

This chapter is an attempt to explore cultural context of parenting in Poland. An assumption is made that parental beliefs, styles and practices are continually shaped by the interplay of multiple factors, including parents' and child's characteristics and individual pathways of development, as well as a variety of broadly understood contextual det...

The aim of this study was to analyze possible links between paternal involvement and children’s competence in coordinated joint attention (CJA) in preterm versus full-term 12-month-old babies. Paternal involvement was measured through the amount of time fathers allocated to different activities with their infants, whereas children’s capacity for CJ...

The study was aimed at exploring feeding behaviour problems reported by parents of premature infants during the first 12 months corrected age. A subsample of families enrolled in a larger, prospective project on psychological and biological predictors of self-regulation in preterm children participated in the study. The material consisted of data c...

Infants with post-haemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD) have a high risk of severe disability and parenchymal infarction increases this risk. Existing cranial ultrasound (CUS) markers of neurodevelopmental outcome are based on categorical features. To investigate to what extent quantitative CUS measurements correlated with severity of developm...

This paper presents the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire—Revised (IBQ-R). A group of 396 pairs of parents was studied, and a 3-factor structure of IBQ-R emerged with differences comparing to the original U.S. sample and a prior replication Russian sample. Analyses demonstrated satisfactory internal...

Background and Aims: Grunau and colleagues (2007) describe the phenomenon of altered basal salivary cortisol levels in the case of the tiniest preterm babies in the first 18 months of life which may suggest a disregulation of the HPA-axis and early programming of stress response. This in turn may have important implications for child's behavioral d...

Aim: The analysis of similarities and differences of parental experience of observing preterm versus full term babies assessed with the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS). Material and method: 95 pairs of parents participated in the study, including 33 mothers and fathers of babies born before 29th gestational week, 31 - between 29th a...

To investigate whether infants with a score <50 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition (BSID-II) demonstrated differences in functional ability, and to assess whether the Bayley Developmental Quotients (DQs) indicated such differences. Preterm infants (n = 67; 47 boys) with posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation were evaluated a...

Preterm infants who develop posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD) have a high risk of cognitive and motor disability. No clinical intervention has been proven to reduce neurodevelopmental disability in such infants. We investigated whether drainage, irrigation, and fibrinolytic therapy (DRIFT), which aims to lower pressure, distortion, free...

The aim of the study was to describe the process of disclosing HIV/AIDS problem in the family to children and to explore its possible determinants. The investigations were carried in 37 children, aged 4-16 years, living in families with HIV/AIDS problem (25 children were HIV+ and 12 HIV-) and in their parents/ caregivers. Empirical material consist...

The notion of 'family empowerment' is of crucial importance in any kind of psychosocial intervention directed to families with children living with HIV/AIDS. The goal is to restore self-efficacy and self-esteem, encourage positive coping and help family members make their own choices. Two settings for psychosocial intervention are described: an out...

The quality of social interactions in early childhood is an important factor in mental development. Hospitalisation of the child in the neonatal period jeopardises these early contacts between parents and their child. The author briefly describes selected methods of supporting parent-child interactions in the neonatal department or neonatal intensi...

Premature birth and hospitalisation of a child in the first weeks of life may have a potentially adverse effect on the relationship between the parents and the child. The aim of this paper is to describe: 1) emotional reactions of parents of babies born prematurely, 2) parental processes of coping, and 3) psychological intervention in the context o...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of nurses working in primary health care system in Poland towards people living with HIV. A method of choice was a specially designed projective tool composed of 15 sentences to be completed by the subjects. The sentences were aimed at provoking the subjects to disclose their true beliefs, opinion...

In developing countries, the benefits of breastfeeding in relation to the child's survival outnumber the risk of transmitting HIV via the mother's milk. In these countries different actions are undertaken to reduce the risk of vertical transmission during breastfeeding. On the contrary, in the developed countries HIV positive mothers are strongly r...

The aim of this study was to explore the psychological situation of hospitalized women with high risk pregnancy, i.e. 1) the level and sources of anxiety, 2) coping strategies and 3) the needs regarding the model of care at OB/GYN department. 116 subjects participated in the study. The experimental group consisted of 65 pregnant women with high ris...