Mental health articles

Effect of ante-natal mental health problems Stressful life events in the ante-natal period affect parental physical and mental well-being. This can impact on foetal and therefore infant development and mental health in a number of ways. There are the possible effects of maternal mental health on obstetric outcomes, and potentially on the neurobiological development of […]

Influences on the field of infant mental health Understanding of early childhood development has been influenced by psychoanalytic theory, object relations theory, attachment theory and developmental psychology. Infant research has contributed to an understanding of the capacities of the newborn to interact with the environment and to organise the self and experiences in an active […]

Why is infant mental health important? The relationship between any particular early experience and later infant outcome is not a simple linear one (Zeanah, Boris & Larrieu, 1997). Development proceeds as a complex series of interactions between the innate qualities of infants, their experiences in interaction with their physical and social world, and their capacity […]

Infant mental health is a multidisciplinary field of research and clinical practice. It is an area of rapidly expanding knowledge and of innovation in clinical interventions. At its core is recognition that infancy is a foundational developmental period, physically, psychologically and socially, that infant development occurs within the context of key caregiving relationships, and that […]