The effects of nursery-based intervention with healthy, prematurely born babies and their socially disadvantaged mothers were evaluated. Mother-infant dyads were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: In group one, the babies received special stimulation designed to make them more active contributors to the interactions with their mothers; in group two, mothers received special training to help them become more responsive to cues from their babies; in group three, infants received stimulation and mothers received training. In addition, a fourth group of preterm babies who received regular hospital care served as a comparison group to assess the short-term effects of the stimulation program. Outcome measures designed to evaluate various aspects of mother-infant interaction and infant development failed to reflect any effects of the interventions, either at the time the babies were discharged from the hospital or one year later. We attribute the lack of positive findings to the fact that the mothers faced numerous crises in their social environments. We conclude, therefore, that nothing short of massive social change is likely to result in measurable effects.

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