Infant Mental Health Journal最新文献

Perinatal parenting interventions may be important for enhancing parenting quality, but previous research has mostly focused on parental sensitivity. Other important outcomes, such as parental self-efficacy (PSE), have rarely been studied. Research is also contradictory on whether parenting interventions can also enhance maternal mental health and how treatment-related moderators affect treatment outcome. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of three individually tailored perinatal parenting interventions (therapeutic parent-infant work, maternity and child health clinic psychologists, and practical help) for parenting and mental health in naturalistic community settings in Finnish primary care. We further examined whether mental health symptoms moderated parenting efficacy and how treatment-related factors moderated parenting and mental health outcomes. The sample comprised 263 Finnish-speaking mothers: 177 in different interventions and 86 non-clinical controls from the same area. Parenting was examined with Maternal Self-Efficacy Scale and Emotional Availability (EA) self-report, depression with Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and anxiety with Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale at the beginning of treatment, post-treatment, and at the six-month follow-up. Therapeutic work was the most broadly effective, with long-term effects on both parenting and mental health outcomes, regardless of maternal symptom level. Spouse participation, postnatal onset, and higher treatment dosage increased intervention effectiveness.

The use of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) has grown dramatically over the past decade to support the skills and reflective capacity of adults who care for infants and young children birth to kindergarten entry. Research to date has shown promise for IECMHC to support children's social and emotional development. However, there is a gap in the published research that articulates how fidelity to a specific statewide IECMHC model impacts desired outcomes for adult caregivers or the infants and children they serve. This article, which articulates the process that Colorado used to develop its own IECMHC model, is the first step in filling this gap in the research. The step-by-step approach to model development can be used by other states undertaking similar efforts to create models that are geared toward a variety of settings, such as early education, home visitation, or health care. Colorado is beginning statewide implementation of the model that resulted from this process and will soon start evaluating the fidelity of that implementation. This process creates the groundwork for ultimately tying implementation of an articulated IECMHC model to outcomes for adults and the infants and children they care for.

Research has documented elevated experiences of racial discrimination among African American families, and its adverse impacts on their psychological well-being. However, most studies have investigated the experiences of and consequences for older children and adults. The goal of the current study was to examine the relations among mothers' perception of discrimination during pregnancy, pre- and post-natal depressive symptoms, and infant development in African American families from low-income backgrounds. Using a longitudinal design with questionnaires and direct assessments, this study included 118 African American mothers (and infants) who participated in three data collection sessions: the third trimester of pregnancy (home); 4 weeks postpartum (phone); and when infants were 4-6 months old (home). Analyses revealed that mothers' perceived prenatal discrimination was strongly associated with depressive symptomatology and that maternal depression was related to infant cognitive and fine motor skills. Perceived prenatal discrimination was significantly related to infant cognitive development. For mothers with higher levels of perceived discrimination, a higher level of depressive symptomatology was related to receptive language. These findings are considered in the context of the extant literature on perinatal stress, maternal functioning, and young infant outcomes. Implications for early childhood and infant mental health practice are discussed.

Parental reflective functioning (PRF) is important in guiding parenting behavior. It is traditionally measured with interviews that are relatively time-consuming. A self-report measure of PRF, the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ), has been developed but has not yet been extensively validated across different sociocultural contexts. The aim of this study was to examine the factorial structure of the PRFQ in a community-based first-time parent sample in Finland. We further examined the associations between PRFQ scales and parental demographic features, depression, emotional availability (EA) in parent-child relationships, and representations of the child. The sample comprised 355 mothers and 108 fathers and was part of a larger longitudinal study. Data were collected by an online questionnaire at the child age of 2 years. PRF was measured with PRFQ, parental depression with Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression, parent-child interaction quality with Emotional Availability Self-Report, and parental representations of the child with a modified adjective list developed in conjunction with the Interview of Maternal/Paternal Representations. Our results showed that the factor structure of PRFQ was similar to the original sample, and parental demographics, depression, and parenting variables were associated with the PRF scales in an expected manner, supporting the validity of PRFQ across different cultures.

Professionals in the Infant/Early Child Mental Health (IECMH) field are at an increased risk of experiencing burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma symptoms due to the nature of their work that is further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Engagement in self-care may be a helpful strategy for IECMH professionals to curb these psychological effects. Previous operationalizations of self-care have singularly emphasized the behavior aspect despite a growing body of research showing the importance of self-care beliefs. A novel Self-Care Belief and Behavior Questionnaire was tested in a sample of 121 IECMH female identifying professionals located in the United States (between the ages of 18 and 69 with 81.2% identified as White, 12.3% as Black or African American, 2.5% as Latino/a or Latin American, 1.6% as multi-ethnic, .8% as Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1.6% preferred not to answer) to strengthen psychometric validity and understand how self-care relates to professional quality of life, internalizing symptoms, and emotion regulation in the IECMH Workforce.

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young children's mental health and their engagement in mental health services in the midwestern United States. Previous research investigating the impact of COVID-19 on young children's mental health service utilization has rarely included children under 5 years. Therefore, this study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic and the caregiver-child relationship impacted children's mental health symptoms. It also investigated the impact of COVID-19 and the child's symptom presentation on caregivers' engagement and attendance in mental health treatment. Data were collected with children 0 to 5 years old (n = 486) from January 2017 to April 2022 using archival records from a community mental health organization. Participants were primarily low-income (81.9%) and White (81.3%). Results found that the caregiver-child relationship impacted children's mental health symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both caregivers and children were rated as more engaged after the pandemic began if the child experienced externalizing symptoms. Children attended fewer therapy sessions after the pandemic started, and those with externalizing symptoms received more overall services than those without.

The crucial importance of parenting for human development is well known, yet there has been little investigation, particularly regarding infancy parenting. This study investigates mother- and infant-related characteristics affecting parenting styles in the first year after birth. Additionally, adapting an Infancy Parenting Styles Questionnaire (IPSQ) to Turkish is aimed. In total, 110 mothers with babies in the first year of their lives (M_{age in months} = 6.39, SD_{age in months} = 3.72; 70 girls) participated in the study. Mothers filled out the IPSQ, Early Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (EPAQ), Karitane Parental Self-Confidence Scale (KPSC), and Parental Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF). Four components emerged: involvement, discipline, anxiety, and routine. The IPSQ was found to be reliable (α = .81) and valid. The findings revealed that income, the number of children, and parental confidence were significant predictors for involvement; maternal education, parental confidence, parenting stress, and sleep wellness of the baby were significant predictors for discipline; and the number of caregivers and parental confidence were significant predictors for routine sub-components. Also, results indicated higher involvement and lower discipline in primiparous compared to multiparous mothers. The findings were discussed in light of the literature regarding the antecedents of parenting and its developmental outcomes.

Indigenous lifeways, perspectives, and ways of knowing in the field of infant and early childhood mental health are underrepresented, especially given the inequitable and unjust prevalence of removal and separation of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children from their families and communities by the child welfare system in the United States. Strengthening the infant and early childhood mental health field requires uncovering and addressing the ways in which colonization has intentionally attempted to disrupt and destroy Indigenous family relationships, especially bonds with young children, both historically and perpetuated into the present day. The current article reviews the historical context of Indian child removal as a result of colonization, cultural revitalization efforts, and decolonial frameworks that inform culturally grounded intervention strategies advancing the field of infant and early childhood mental health. Decolonization is highlighted as integral for the reclamation of Indigenous caregiving practices. Community-based and Indigenous-led initiatives such as the Indian Child Welfare Act, Tribal home visiting, and breastfeeding programming are highlighted as diverse strengths-based approaches, informed by Indigenous scholarship to ensure the health and well-being of our future generations.

Acknowledging that the parent-child attachment is a dyadic relationship, we investigated differences between pairs of parents and preschool children based on gender configurations in the association between attachment and problem behavior. We looked at mother-daughter, mother-son, father-daughter, and father-son dyads, but also compared mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, and same versus different gender pairs. We employed multigroup structural equation modeling to explore moderation effects of gender in a sample of 446 independent pairs of parents and preschool children (2-5 years old) from the Netherlands. A stronger association between both secure and avoidant attachment and internalizing problems was found for father-son dyads compared to father-daughter dyads. A stronger association between both secure and avoidant attachment and externalizing problems was found for mother-son dyads compared to mother-daughter and father-daughter dyads. Sons showed a stronger negative association between secure attachment and externalizing problems, a stronger positive association between avoidant attachment and externalizing problems, and a stronger negative association between secure attachment and internalizing problems compared to daughters. These results provide evidence for gender moderation and demonstrate that a dyadic approach can reveal patterns of associations that would not be recognized if parent and child gender effects were assessed separately.

Despite the growing literature on parental mentalization (including measures such as mind-mindedness, parental reflective functioning, and parental insightfulness), considerably less research on parental mentalization has been conducted with fathers than with mothers, leaving important gaps in our understanding of gender differences in the construct. Specifically, it is not clear whether mothers and fathers exhibit similar levels of parental mentalization, and whether their scores are correlated. This knowledge can help inform the literature on similarities and differences between maternal and paternal behaviors, as well as the literature on their correlates. This study sought to answer these questions using a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies evaluating parental mentalization capacities in partnered mothers and fathers. Across 36 studies (32 unique samples and 87 effect sizes, N = 3,996 fathers and 4,414 mothers), mainly from Europe and North America, the results show that fathers presented lower scores than mothers (d = -.17, p < .001). There was also a significant correlation in scores between mothers and fathers of the same family (r = .15, p < .001). There were no significant moderators. Findings from this study emphasize the need for research on parental mentalization to use a family system approach.