Abusive head trauma (AHT) or shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is the most frequent cause of infant morbidity and mortality. Lazarus’s Theory of Stress and Coping was used to develop a theoretical model for AHT used in this study to evaluate variable relationships. The aims were to describe relationships among parent’s infant development knowledge, infant crying, parent stress, parent coping, and infant abuse risk and to determine what content should be included in AHT prevention programs according to the theoretical model. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used to obtain data from mothers of two month old infants who presented for a well-child visit at pediatric primary offices. A convenience sample of 99 mothers completed the Knowledge of Inventory Development Inventory (KIDI), the Crying Patterns Questionnaire (CPQ), the Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF), the Jalowiec Coping scale (JCS), and the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP), and a demographic questionnaire developed by the researcher. Various statistical tests and descriptive statistics were used in the data analysis.
Infant crying and parent’s infant development knowledge were not related to infant abuse risk. Maternal stress differentiated between high and low abuse risk groups. Six percent of the mothers at high risk for abuse in this study is comparable to the national average of 9.6% of children in general who are abused. There was a difference between coping style and effectiveness related to crying between high and low risk mothers. Supportant coping and its effectiveness with crying was used more by low risk mothers. High risk mothers used more often evasive, fatalistic, and emotive coping strategies. Several infant soothing techniques for crying infants were utilized at significantly different rates by the mothers who were in the high and low risk groups. The findings suggest that AHT prevention programs should provide parents with content related to soothing techniques for crying infants. Based on the results, the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory is identified as a screening tool to be used by pediatric primary care providers to target AHT prevention.