Conceptualizing Parent–Infant Co-Occupations in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for Measurement: A Delphi Study

Co-occupations among parents and their infants have been studied for nearly three decades, yet may be incompletely understood. An emphasis on parental subjective perspectives of their co-occupational experiences and lack of tools to equitably generate data regarding infants’ experiences may contribute to gaps in understanding and measuring co-occupations. The study aimed to generate an objective rating scale for use in research contexts to quantify parent–infant co-occupations while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The Delphi method was utilized to obtain expert opinion on a proposed rating scale. Twelve occupational therapy and science expert reviewers achieved consensus at >90% agreement on the accuracy of three subscales after two survey rounds, with changes made between rounds based on expert feedback. The proposed rating scales may offer a novel measure to quantify co-occupations in the NICU. Further research is warranted to psychometrically evaluate the tool before considering clinical applications.