The COPE program provides parents with: (a) information on the appearance and behavioral characteristics of premature infants and information on how parents can participate in their infant's care, meet their infant's needs, enhance the quality of interaction with their infant, and facilitate their infant's development (parental role information); and (b) activities that assist parents in implementing the experimental information. The content of the COPE program is driven by the theoretical framework, developmental theory, the literature review, interventions found to be effective in previous studies, and prior work by the research team.