Infant Mental Health Journal最新文献

Learning Landscapes (LLs) are family-friendly structures that transform community spaces (e.g., parks and bus stops) into engaging activities. The community structures are designed to encourage children to explore their environment while fostering developmentally supportive interactions (DSI) and learning opportunities between caregivers and children, including children with disabilities. Playful learning provided through LLs could result in developmental gains for children from lower-income backgrounds. The purpose of this multiple methods study, conducted in the US, was to examine 10 caregivers’ perceptions and play interactions with their children while at one outdoor LL. Observational data revealed high caregiver-child engagement, and interview data indicated that caregivers perceived improved positive interactions during LL activities. The LL also promoted caregivers’ knowledge of child development and impacted some participants' perceptions of generalized strategy use. Taken together, environmental prompts, such as those within LLs, can promote DSI in everyday environments, offering opportunities to boost children's early development.

There is a growing awareness that psychological research and clinical practices should be conducted through a culturally and racially sensitive lens. Despite this growing awareness, there are areas of psychological research that have been slow to adopt these practices. In particular, the study of infant mental health (IMH) has struggled to advance its understanding of relational dynamics by consistently excluding marginalized families, making IMH-based inquiry vulnerable to misinterpretation and harmful conclusions about caregiving relationships. Modifying attachment-based measures becomes an essential step toward adopting culturally sensitive research practices. The current paper documents the process of modifying the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI), an attachment-based measure, to share the experience and lessons learned among researchers aiming to explore attachment in Black mothers in the United States. Uniquely, this paper integrates former research participants into the research team, further fostering culturally sensitive research practices. The implications of this paper are to encourage future researchers and clinicians working in IMH to continually interrogate and reimagine accepted approaches to relationship assessment with Black families.

Structural inequities in the United States limit access to prenatal parenting education and supports for many pregnant people and their partners. This pilot trial aimed to evaluate the impact of a novel partner-inclusive intervention on new parents’ knowledge of developmentally appropriate early parenting practices. Forty-two participants were assigned to the 6-week group intervention and 38 participants were assigned to a usual care comparison group. The sample was racially and ethnically diverse and participants were required to meet study income restrictions. Participants were interviewed at three time points: Time 1 (pre-intervention; 12–18 weeks gestation), Time 2 (post-intervention;18–24 weeks gestation), and Time 3 (6 weeks postnatal) to assess knowledge regarding infant development and parenting practices, parenting self-competence, parenting stress, and the coparenting relationship. Dyadic Hierarchical Linear Models were used to test whether the intervention was associated with changes and levels in parenting readiness. Results revealed that parent dyads reported increased knowledge of infant development, increased parenting self-competence, and less parenting stress following the intervention relative to comparison group participants. No significant intervention effects were observed for the coparenting relationship. The accessible nature of the PREParing for Parenthood program makes it a promising intervention to promote parenting readiness among pregnant people and their partners.

Maternal substance use is a pressing public health issue that confers risk for maternal health, the parent-infant relationship, and child development. Integrated interventions that jointly address maternal substance use and child development have shown promise for enhancing child outcomes. No research to date has focused exclusively on the outcomes of young children or examined potential moderators of the effect sizes of integrated programs. This review evaluates the pooled effect of integrated interventions for substance-involved mothers on the developmental outcomes of their children. A comprehensive search strategy was conducted in seven databases (APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, Embase, MEDLINE, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science) from January 2011 and May 2023. Studies were included if they reported on an intervention with at least one substance use treatment and one parenting or child treatment service for substance-involved mothers of children under 6 years of age. A total of 21 studies met inclusion criteria, and 14 nonoverlapping studies reported on effect sizes with a pooled effect size of SMD = .470 (95% CI = .35, .59). There was a trend toward treatment duration being a significant moderator (p = .08). Additional high-quality studies are needed to demonstrate the long-term impact of these interventions.

Healthy early childhood development unfolds in the context of relationships with important caregivers, including early educators. Grounded in the evidence on early relational health, the 8-week Hand in Hand Foundations Course for Early Childhood Educators teaches a novel connection-based approach to understanding and responding to young children's emotions. Educators learn five tools for bolstering connection during emotional experiences (Staylistening), increasing positive and playful interactions with children (Special Time, Playlistening), responding to challenging behavior (Setting Limits), and creating sustainable, peer-supported reflective practice groups (Listening Partnerships). The goal is to foster stronger educator-child relationships, improve well-being for educators and children, and build a culture of connection and reflection in ECE. This mixed-methods pilot study of the Foundations Course in the United States investigated educators’ experiences with the course, soliciting input on the feasibility of using the tools in the classroom and areas for improving the course. Educators reported that the theories resonated with them, they incorporated many of the tools, and they saw benefits for children and the ECE community. They also expressed a need for ongoing learning opportunities, implementation scaffolding, and organizational support. These findings have implications for supporting educator and child social-emotional health and potential future revisions for the course.

Prenatal anxiety is associated with poor postpartum infant-child relationships. Thus strategies that improve prenatal anxiety could also affect this relationship. We investigated the effects of an intervention to address prenatal anxiety on maternal-infant bonding and examined the potential mediating roles of maternal self-efficacy, maternal-infant responsiveness, and postpartum depression. Data were collected between 2019 and 2022 as part of a randomized controlled trial to treat prenatal anxiety using cognitive behavioral therapy. Participants included 701 pregnant women aged 18 or older with symptoms of anxiety, but not depression, attending a tertiary hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Women randomized to the intervention arm demonstrated significantly lower scores on the postpartum bonding questionnaire (B = −3.05, 95% CI: −4.98, −1.12), indicating stronger bonding. Responsiveness, self-efficacy, and postpartum depression significantly mediated 38%, 66%, and 95% of the association between the intervention and bonding, respectively. These mediators may be useful targets to improve maternal-infant bonding among women with prenatal anxiety.

Dysregulation in early childhood is associated with increased vulnerability to psychopathology and poor psychosocial outcomes. While there is evidence that both child language ability and parental mentalization are associated with dysregulation in early childhood, there is little understanding of the relationships between these variables, and minimal research has been conducted in clinical samples. This study tested the association between child language ability (using the Mullens Scale of Early Learning) and child dysregulation (using the Child Behavior Checklist Dysregulation Profile), and examined whether parental mentalization (operationalized as Parental Reflective Functioning and Mind-Mindedness, assessed using Diamond Maternal Reflective Functioning Scale and interactional 20-min play sessions, respectively) mediated this relationship, in a clinical sample of 90 mother–child dyads (child M age = 19.48 months, SD = 3.15) referred to a specialized community-based child behavior treatment clinic located in Sydney, Australia. Results showed that greater child receptive language and better parental reflective functioning were associated with lower rates of child dysregulation. Contrary to expectation, however, parental mentalization did not mediate the relationship between child language and dysregulation.These findings suggest that clinically, children with dysregulation may benefit from interventions targeting receptive language and parental reflective functioning; however, further research in this area is required.

In two-parent households, the interparental relationship and coparenting alliance are central to the well-being of family relationships and young children. The current study examines whether participation in a brief, online, couple-focused relationship intervention has collateral benefits to coparenting indirectly through improvements in couple relationship quality and conflict frequency, respectively. A community sample of couples with young children in Canada (N = 140 couples; 280 participants; 91.4% heterosexual; 61.1% White; 49.3% women) participated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The intervention group was taught conflict reappraisal strategies, whereas the control group received an inactive control task. Both members of the couple reported on perceived relationship quality and conflict frequency (at baseline and post-intervention), and coparenting (at baseline, 1-month, and 3-month follow-up). Controlling for baseline levels, a longitudinal, parallel mediation analysis including relationship quality and conflict frequency as mediators indicated that the indirect effect of random assignment to the intervention to coparenting via relationship quality was significant, but not through conflict frequency. There are positive cascading effects of a couple-focused intervention onto the relationship between parents, which in turn enhances their ability to work together to raise their child. Findings help to bridge intervention research across relationship, family, and developmental science.

Due to adverse circumstances in institutional care settings, institutionalized children are at risk of developing insecure attachment types and attachment disorders. The current study examined the role of institutionalization on attachment by comparing children residing in institutions with children in foster care and never-institutionalized children living in Türkiye. Further, the moderating role of children's temperamental characteristics (i.e., frustration and perceptual sensitivity) between the care groups and attachment was investigated. In total, 103 children (18–39 months old; 37 residing in institutions, 29 in foster care families, and 37 never-institutionalized children living with their biological families), and their caregivers participated. Attachment types were assessed via an observation-based measurement tool. Attachment disorders were assessed via interviews with caregivers. Temperamental characteristics were measured by a caregiver-reported questionnaire. The results indicated that children in institutions had less secure, more avoidant, and disorganized attachment types than those in foster care and never-institutionalized children. Furthermore, children with low perceptual sensitivity displayed more avoidant attachment if they stayed in institutions compared to their peers in foster care. Being in foster care and having high levels of perceptual sensitivity negatively predicted Reactive Attachment Disorder. The findings indicate important implications for future studies and social policies.