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Aim: This study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns of parenting stress, adult anxiety, and depression in mothers of children with profound or severe visual impairment (PVI or SVI) at 1 year and 2 years of age., Method: Mothers of a national longitudinal cohort (OPTIMUM Project) of infants with congenital disorders of the peripheral visual system and PVI (light perception at best) or SVI (basic 'form' vision of non-light reflecting objects) participated. Infant age at baseline (T 1 ) was 8 to 16 months. Mothers completed the Parenting Stress Index - Short Form and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale at T 1 (n=79) and at follow-up 12 months later (T 2 ) (n=73)., Results: Mothers of the total group had higher parenting stress levels (34.6% in clinical range) than community normative data at T 1 (p=0.017). Mothers of infants in the PVI subgroup had elevated stress at T 1 (p=0.014) and T 2 (p=0.009). The PVI subgroup was also elevated in the Difficult Child subscale at T 2 (p=0.001). Within-sample differences in parenting stress between the visual impairment subgroups were found at T 2 only: the PVI subgroup scored higher than the SVI subgroup (p=0.029). Adult anxiety and depression in the total group were not elevated compared with community normative data at T 1 and T 2 ; however, higher parenting stress was related to raised adult anxiety and depression levels at T 1 and T 2 (p=0.001). Regression analysis found parenting stress and lower child vision level (T 1 ) predicted parenting stress (T 2 ) (p=0.001; 42% variance)., Interpretation: Mothers of 1-year-old infants with visual impairment showed raised risk for parenting stress, which continued to be elevated for children with PVI and those perceived as 'difficult' at 2 years. This was also a psychological risk, with greater adult anxiety and depression in those mothers with raised parenting stress. The clinical significance is that identification of parenting stress and targeted parenting, and behavioural support of the child in the first years of life is highly indicated., What This Paper Adds: Mothers of infants with visual impairment are at increased risk of parenting stress. Parenting stress was higher in mothers of children with profound visual impairment than those with severe visual impairment. High levels of parenting stress and lower infant vision at 1 year of age predicted higher parenting stress at 2 years of age., (© 2017 Mac Keith Press.)

Background: This study investigated mother–infant interactions, including maternal maintaining of infant attentional focus and sensitivity, with infants with congenital severe and profound visual impairment (VI) and the association with developmental trajectories from one to three years. Method: Fifty‐five infants and mothers were video‐recorded playing together with a standard set of toys at Time 1 (T1) mean age 12.95 months (8.13–17.05 months). Maintain was categorized as the mother following and maintaining the child's focus, and Sensitivity, the mother's responsiveness and contingency to infant behaviour. Vision level was measured using the Near Detection Scale. Cognition and language were measured at T1, 12 months later (T2) and 24 months later (T3) using the Reynell‐Zinkin Scales. Results: Cross‐sectional analyses showed that mothers of infants with severe VI (basic form vision) produced higher rates of Maintain compared to those with children with profound VI (light perception at best). Linear mixed‐effects models examining developmental progression from T1 to T3 (controlling for vision level) showed an average increase of 5 DQ points (CI 95%: 1.03–9.08) in verbal comprehension for higher Sensitivity. No significant findings were found for Maintain. Conclusions: The findings suggest that mother–infant interactions (maternal Maintain) are associated with level of vision at infancy, but only maternal Sensitivity has a long‐term positive association with advances in verbal comprehension from infancy to about three years. They highlight the need for incorporating strategies related to parent–infant interactions, including increased sensitivity, into early intervention for children with visual impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]