Samenvatting

A key element in social development is interaction with others. Preterm infants have an increased risk for problems in this aspect. We aimed to gain insight into parents’ perception about their preterm child’s social interaction upon reaching school age. Twelve caregivers of preterm infants aged five to eight years participated in in-depth interviews. The children were born after a pregnancy of less than 36 weeks. All participants live in the northern part of the Netherlands. The level of education of the caregivers varied between lower vocational education to university. Parents informed us about their child being a little fighter, having issues of coping with their disabilities in social contexts, and how their child withdraws from situations that are overly stimulating. They also expressed their concerns about the future, how they encourage their child, and how they experience the transition to primary school. Parents’ experiences concerning the social interaction of their preterm child can be categorized into eight themes of processes in social interaction: child factors, self-regulation, realtime social interaction, long-term social interaction, parental factors, parenting, social environment, and social experiences. In supporting preterm children, it is recommended to focus on the relatedness between real-time social interaction experiences and long-term outcomes.