Infant Mental Health Journal最新文献

Due to growing awareness of post-traumatic reactions and development of treatments for young children (0–6 years), there is an increasing need for accurate assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If the youngest children cannot manifest PTSD due to still-emerging cognitive emotional abilities, then treatments relying on those abilities may be ineffective. The objective of this review is to systematically review the literature of detailed case reports to provide guidance on the earliest possible age when the developmental capacities needed for the development of PTSD have sufficiently emerged. Literature searches were conducted in PsycInfo and PubMed databases for children who experienced trauma prior to 36 months of age. This review identified 54 cases. Six cases showed potential to fulfill diagnostic criteria of PTSD for children 6 years or younger (PTSD-6Y) if reports were taken at face value. The ages of trauma ranged from 0 to 35 months, with the youngest age of trauma at 15 months. The reports of symptoms, however, often lacked verification by details and examples, placing the potential diagnoses in doubt. Recommendations for further research are offered for more comprehensive and rigorous interviewing techniques to validate possible diagnoses of children with PTSD under 36 months of age.

Preschoolers are excluded from early childhood education settings at alarming rates, largely for developmentally typical emotional responses. Boys, Black children, and children with disabilities are being excluded disproportionately more than their peers. In 2018, Illinois enacted legislation to limit formal expulsion; however, children are still pushed out of programs. This study evaluated Preventing Expulsion in Preschool (PEP)—a self-paced, virtual teacher training providing content on exclusion in Illinois, social-emotional development, and strategies for self-regulation in response to a child's behavior. Predominantly female, Illinois teachers of color (N = 41) received continuing education credit for completing the training and were evaluated pre-, post-, and 3-month-post-training to assess knowledge, attitude, skill maintenance, and changes in classroom practices. Through self-report, participants positively received the training, trauma-informed attitudes improved immediately after the training and were sustained at a 3-month follow-up, perceived stress decreased, self-care uptake increased, and prosocial classroom management techniques improved at 3-month follow-up. Though expulsion risk increased following PEP, reported exclusionary discipline and expulsion practices decreased at follow-up. These results inform policymakers that a brief, online training may reduce exclusionary discipline and is a good use of teacher time.

Examining the impact and interplay of maternal and paternal perinatal mental health problems enhances understanding of the etiology of mental health problems in early childhood. This study investigated associations between maternal and paternal prenatal (first trimester) and postnatal (3 and 30 months) anxiety and depression symptoms and preschoolers' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The sample included 115 preschoolers and their parents (N = 230) recruited during the first trimester of pregnancy at a Portuguese health facility. Mothers and fathers completed anxiety and depression measures during the first trimester, at 3 and 30 months postpartum, and the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5–5 (CBCL) at 30 months. Multilevel linear models and moderation models were tested. Maternal depression symptoms in the first trimester, paternal depression symptoms at 3 months postpartum, and their interplay were prospectively associated with higher preschoolers' internalizing and externalizing scores at 30 months. When fathers reported low depression symptoms 3 months postpartum, mothers’ depression symptoms during the first trimester were not associated with preschoolers’ internalizing and externalizing scores at 30 months. This suggests that low paternal postnatal depression symptoms can buffer the adverse effect of maternal prenatal depression symptoms. Addressing maternal and paternal perinatal mental health could contribute to preventing preschoolers’ internalizing and externalizing problems.

Black fathers, particularly those who are low-income, unmarried, and from minoritized communities, face significant barriers to full participation in their children's lives. Prenatal challenges include scheduling conflicts, living arrangements, and relationship dynamics with the child's mother. These factors critically impact early paternal involvement and infant bonding. Despite the importance of father involvement, research on Black fathers' prenatal involvement and infant attachment remains limited. This study examines 75 Black fathers in the United States, investigating how relationship quality and paternal depressive symptoms influence prenatal involvement and early infant attachment. The research seeks to illuminate the complex interpersonal dynamics that shape paternal involvement during pregnancy and infancy, and addresses a crucial gap in understanding Black fatherhood experiences. We found that fathers’ depressive symptoms were negatively associated with the quality of their relationship with the mother of their child (B = −1.398, SE = .524, p = .009, LLCI = −2.443, ULCI = −.353). The findings suggest interparental relationship quality and paternal depressive symptoms are key interpersonal and personal factors that are associated with father involvement in pregnancy and early infant attachment with the baby.

The capacity for children to self-regulate is an important developmental task of early childhood, with caregivers playing an integral role in self-regulation development. While caregivers’ emotions and behaviors are known to impact child self-regulatory capacity, the impact of child self-regulation difficulties on parents is less understood. This study explored parents’ experience of child self-regulation difficulties using semi-structured qualitative interviews with 23 parents (87% female; 90% European Australian; M age = 35.95) of children (aged 5 years and under) in Australia. Five key themes were identified through thematic analysis: ‘supporting child self-regulation is hard’, ‘takes a toll on parents’, ‘challenging for parents to self-regulate’, ‘relationships change’, and ‘daily life needs to change’. This research highlights the need for programs that support parents with children experiencing self-regulation difficulties.

Biopsychosocial perspectives suggest that maternal bonding is shaped by various factors. Moreover, bonding may vary among different groups of women. This study aimed to identify trajectories of maternal bonding from late pregnancy to 12 months postpartum and explored whether these were associated with demographic, obstetric, psychological, and infant variables. Questionnaires were completed by 1216 Dutch women (M_age = 31.50) and obstetric data were collected. To estimate longitudinal trajectories, latent class growth analysis was performed. As anticipated, three distinct bonding trajectories emerged, characterized by consistently high, intermediate, or low bonding. Bonding increased between late pregnancy and 8 weeks postpartum, but not in the low bonding class. Women with a lower education, an intended pregnancy, a spontaneous vaginal birth, more partner support, fewer depressive symptoms, more infant surgency, and less infant crying were more likely to belong to the high bonding class. Belonging to the low bonding class was associated with higher education, less partner support, more depressive symptoms, less infant surgency, and more infant crying. Women who experience prepartum bonding difficulties are at risk for impaired bonding after childbirth and they may benefit less from typical postpartum bonding factors. Associated factors may provide valuable opportunities for screening and timely intervention.

A transition in care (TIC) is a significant change in the primary adults who provide care for a child, involving a move to informal or formal non-parental care, including kinship and foster care. In this paper, we address three issues: (1) the theoretical and empirical reasons for retaining infants and children who experience TIC in longitudinal studies of child health and development; (2) the import of retaining infants and children who experience TIC in studies focusing on parental substance use; and (3) methodological strategies for following children with TIC. We discuss the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study as an example of how a large prospective longitudinal cohort study can retain children who experience TIC, describing strategies such as: (1) documenting the frequency and contexts of these transitions and their associations with child health, mental health, and neurodevelopment; (2) attending to consent and mandated reporting requirements; (3) being sensitive to state child welfare policies and practices; (4) addressing retention challenges; (5) focusing on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and (6) establishing methods that document transitions and flexibly follow children as they grow older.

Emotion regulation (ER) during infancy is largely interpersonal, with dyadic studies of mutual regulation revealing how interactions are co-constructed moment by moment. However infant ER in triadic (father-mother-infant) context, the most common context for infant-father engagement during the first year, has rarely been considered. This report presents a new observational system, measuring infant triangular emotion regulation (MITER), for assessing ER strategies in three-person family interactions. Sixty-nine African American infants and their parents, participants in a U.S randomized controlled trial testing effects of a prenatal intervention to promote coparenting were videorecorded in the Lausanne Trilogue Play 12 months after birth. Coders documented infant gaze, affective configurations, parental responses to bids, infant responses to parent ministrations, and ER outcomes (successfully assisted, unsuccessfully assisted, or self-regulated). Interactions were evaluated for coparenting quality, and parents reported on coparenting, depressive symptoms, and infant emotional expression. Families receiving prenatal intervention showed modest evidence of more effective triangular processes, and both successful and unsuccessful ER strategies were associated in hypothesized directions with observational and self-report indices. Multilevel analyses showed that in families with more unsuccessful ER, parental depressive symptoms had a stronger impact on child negative emotionality. Results highlight significance of exploring early ER in family triads.

The postpartum bonding questionnaire (PBQ) is a maternal-reported 25-item measure of bonding, available in 15 languages, and widely used for clinical and research purposes in the United States (U.S.) and across the globe. Nonetheless, its putative 4-factor structure initially proposed in 2001 has never generalized or been replicated in other samples, nor has it been studied in U.S. populations. Using a U.S.-based sample of 610 English-speaking mothers who completed the PBQ 4 months postpartum—mean 32.51 ± 5.25 years old and 47.5% first-time mothers—the initial goal of this study was to confirm the 4-factor/25-item structure of the PBQ. Aligned with other published studies, our confirmatory factor analysis did not support the 4-factor/25-item structure. We then used exploratory factor analysis which supported the creation of a 1-factor/14-item abbreviated measure, the PBQ-R. Unlike previous versions of the PBQ, the PBQ-R is scored so that higher scores indicate stronger bonding. The validity of the PBQ-R was supported by its high internal consistency in this sample (w = 0.89), and correlations with maternal depression (ρ = −0.46) and child neurodevelopment (ρ = 0.11 to ρ = 22) and socio-emotional symptoms (ρ = −0.22 to ρ = −0.33). The new unidimensional shorter PBQ-R is suitable for use in the U.S. as a measure of general mother-infant bonding.

Despite the promise of reflective consultation and the beneficial impacts it may have on enhancing early childhood educator social-emotional well-being and competence, there is limited research on reflective consultation with early childhood educators. The current project, Escúchanos, examined how English-speaking and bilingual Spanish-English early childhood educators (n = 16, 6 White, 9 Latina, 1 Asian/Pacific Islander) in the United States experienced reflective consultation at their child care centers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in the participant's preferred language to provide a better understanding of the perceived benefits and suggested improvements for delivering reflective consultation in early childhood and education settings. Early childhood educators in the study were provided with reflective consultation sessions over 7 months offered by trained mental health consultants in a linguistically responsive manner. Given the cultural and linguistic diversity of the early childhood workforce, this study contributes to the practice of providing culturally and linguistically responsive reflective consultation. Findings from this study suggest that reflective consultation offered early childhood educators with the: space to express feelings; time to take a pause; opportunities to work as a team; and an enhanced awareness of self and others.