Fathers and/or non-birthing partners are now actively involved in child-rearing globally; however some experience emotional difficulties during the perinatal period. With the birth of a preterm infant, parents experience additional stress beyond that normally engendered by having a baby, which can impact on parent-infant relationship and infant development. In Australia, there is limited evidence on fathers' experiences of preterm birth. Thus, this study aimed to explore the experiences of Australian fathers of preterm infants including their emotional and physical wellbeing when they have a preterm infant. Narrative inquiry guided the study; 13 fathers whose preterm infant was admitted to Australian neonatal units participated in in-depth interviews lasting 22-72 min. Data analysis generated four themes: (i) emotional response, (ii) fathers' wellbeing, (iii) fathering in neonatal unit and during transition home (iv) fathers' needs in the neonatal unit. The findings revealed that fathers felt emotionally overwhelmed, had specific needs but their role in the neonatal unit was not well defined and they felt mothers were given more attention. Despite feeling excluded, many continued to support their partner and infant. Health professionals must be aware of their unconscious biases toward gender roles in the neonatal unit and utilize strategies to actively include fathers and non-birthing partners.

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.

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.

Differences in mind-mindedness and parental reflective functioning (PRF) were investigated in mothers and their 6-month-old infants from South Korea (N = 66, 32 girls) and the United Kingdom (N = 63, 26 girls). Mind-mindedness was assessed in terms of appropriate and non-attuned mind-related comments during infant-mother interaction; PRF was assessed using a questionnaire. British mothers commented more on infant desires and preferences, whereas Korean mothers commented more on cognitions and emotions, but there were no cultural differences in overall levels of mind-mindedness. For PRF, Korean mothers reported more certainty about their infants' mental states compared with their British counterparts, but there were no cultural differences in mothers' reported interest in their infants' mental states. Greater reported certainty about infants' mental states was positively related to self-reported parenting quality in both cultural groups, but this association was not seen for parenting quality as assessed observationally. Mind-mindedness and PRF were unrelated in both Korean and British mothers. Results are discussed in terms of the Korean concept of mother-infant oneness and the multi-dimensional nature of parental mentalization.

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.

There are considerable data documenting the importance of early experiences for healthy human development. Though widely accepted amongst mental health clinicians, developmental researchers and early childhood policymakers, this information is not well known by much of the public. We describe a specialized program designed for established and emerging leaders in Louisiana, United States of America, to help them become better informed to take action to support young children and their families and to facilitate connections across sectors for greater impact. Conducted annually for 6 years, the program drew leaders from a variety of professional sectors working in every region of the state. To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, we conducted semi-structured interviews of program graduates and tabulated responses by thematic analysis. We conclude that translation efforts delivered in this kind of format can lead to gains in knowledge among leaders and action to support early childhood development and well-being.

Parental cognitions, stress, depression, and infant regulatory challenges might reinforce each other in the early parent-infant relationship. A transactional model was used as a framework to investigate these relationships. Two hundred and twenty pregnant women and their partners were recruited during pregnancy and followed 7 months postnatally in the NorBaby study in Norway. To investigate risk and protective factors for parental stress and depressive symptoms at 2, 5, and 7 months postnatally, the following variables were entered antenatally: repetitive negative thinking, implicit associations to infants, parity, and social support. Postnatally, observed infant regulatory challenges at 2 months, parent's perception of infant temperament at 5 months, and signs of infant social withdrawal at 7 months. The model yielded that repetitive negative thinking predicted parenting stress and depressive symptoms, while infant regulatory challenges did not. Repetitive negative thinking is also related to infant temperament. For mothers, parity was beneficial against stress, depressive symptoms, and infant regulatory challenges. Implicit associations to infants were not related to parenting stress or depressive symptoms postnatally. Parenting stress and depressive symptoms were not related to infant social withdrawal at 7 months. In sum, how parents perceive their infant's temperament is associated with their own tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking, and not by their infant's observed regulatory behavior. Accordingly, parental cognition and well-being should be considered when families struggle to adapt in the perinatal period.

This study explored the demographic and psychosocial characteristics, and presenting concerns of new or expectant fathers seeking perinatal mental health (PMH) support through the Australia-based ForWhen service, compared to a sample of mothers. The retrospective observational analysis examined routinely collected data from 105 male and 203 female clients who were supported by ForWhen between February 2022 to June 2024. Fathers and mothers did not differ in terms of demographic characteristics, and both presented with similarly high levels of distress during intake. However, fathers were more likely to report current self-harm and/or suicidal ideation, as well as current relationship issues and financial stress. Conversely, mothers were more likely to report parenting concerns such as infant sleep and settling challenges. Overall, far fewer men than women access support through ForWhen, despite the known prevalence of PMH concerns among fathers. There were also differences in how clients accessed the service, with fathers more often referred by their intimate partner, suggesting that partners may be an important avenue to encourage help-seeking for paternal PMH concerns. These findings highlight the need to adapt PMH services-traditionally designed for women-to be more inclusive of and better engage men.

Strength-based video-feedback (SB-VF) is an attached base and culturally sensitive video-feedback intervention which promotes maternal well-being and sensitivity through using mentalization technics. The goals of this study were to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of internet-delivered SB-VF to mother with post-partum depression during COVID-19 pandemic. A pilot randomized, two arm controlled trial was conducted (trial registration NCT04748731) with depressive symptoms' women (n = 172) from Chilean public primary health centers, 79 were randomized to either experimental group (on-line SB-VF plus treatment as usual [TAU], n = 41) or control group (TAU, n = 38). Primary outcomes were feasibility measured by eligibility rate, recruitment rate and intervention completion, and acceptability measured by in depth interviews to mothers and therapists. Secondary outcomes were change in depressive symptoms, maternal sensitivity and parental reflective function. The study demonstrated favorable feasibility and acceptability. Despite moderate recruitment rates, the completion rate was notably high in comparison to other online interventions. Participants reported positive experiences, though some faced challenges with internet access and privacy. Maternal sensitivity improved in the intervention group with a small to large effect size. The SB-VF intervention is feasible and preliminarily effective in public health system, with potential for scaling up in similar contexts.

Parents serve as the primary informants about infant development, wherefore interparent agreement is essential for facilitating timely identification of children at risk. We studied interparent agreement about infant socioemotional adjustment among 323 mothers and fathers/co-parents of 11-month-old infants living in Denmark using The Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ:SE-2). Agreement was assessed through correlation, mean differences, and agreement on different risk levels. We also examined predictors of agreement including child gender, duration of paternity leave, parental educational level, and parenting stress. Finally, interaction effects between parents' educational levels and parenting stress were also examined. Results showed moderate correlations and a small mean difference between parents' total scores, with mothers reporting better infant socioemotional adjustment than fathers. There were also significant differences in terms of placing the child at different risk levels, emphasizing the practical implications of interparent disagreement for screening purposes. Interparent disagreement was predicted by an interaction effect between parents' levels of parenting stress. Results showed that when fathers/co-parents experience low levels of parenting stress, higher levels of parenting stress among mothers are associated with more disagreement. The study is limited as the sample primarily comprises parents of Danish origin with high educational levels.

Promoting First Relationships (PFR) is an evidence-based home-visiting program for caregivers and their children from birth to age 5 years. It focuses on caregiver-child interaction, attachment, and relationship quality using video feedback of unedited recordings to elicit reflection and provide positive feedback linked to knowledge development. This paper provides a brief history of PFR and reports on a qualitative study of 222 caregivers' comments about their PFR experiences following participation in one of four randomized controlled trials conducted over the past decade in the United States (two studies within child welfare setting, one study with Native American families, and one study with Spanish and English-speaking mothers), using a thematic analysis approach to code excerpts from written satisfaction surveys and oral satisfaction interviews. Caregivers' comments about PFR were positive and were classified into four major thematic areas: a caring, trusting relationship with the provider; enthusiastic program endorsement; improved relationship with their child; and reports of their personal growth and development. The qualitative results align with the key components of the PFR program and confirm aspects of the PFR theory of change model.

The purpose of this article is to share our story of conceptualizing Indigenous early relational wellbeing (ERW), specifically reflecting American Indian and Alaska Native worldviews. Our approach is grounded in Indigenous methodologies and guided by a Community of Learning comprised of Indigenous and allied Tribal early childhood community partners, researchers, practitioners, and federal funders. We describe the steps we took to conceptualize caregiver-child relationships from an Indigenous perspective, center Indigenous values of child development, apply an established Indigenous connectedness framework to early childhood, and co-create a conceptual model of Indigenous ERW to guide future practice and research. This model highlights relational practices as seeds of connectedness and relational wellbeing, and includes the roles of spirituality, culture, and ceremony in nurturing ERW; the manifestations of relational wellbeing across the lifespan; and the interdependence of relational wellbeing within communities and families, across generations, and with the environment. The model also informs the creation of a measure to understand practices that foster relational wellbeing among Indigenous children and families and their relationship to positive development, thus informing research, practice, and policy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 = 6.39, SD = 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.

Social understanding competence develops in sensitive and co-regulating caregiver interactions. Parental reflective functioning (PRF) and parenting stress can affect children's social understanding. This study investigated if children's social understanding was associated with PRF and parenting stress. Parents of 305 Italian children aged from 24 to 72 months (M= 48.2, SD = 13.9; 47.9% girls) completed an online survey. Parents completed the following questionnaire: The Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, and the Children's Social Understanding Scale. Results showed that children's social understanding was predicted by lower parenting stress, b = .002, p = .017, and parent's interest and curiosity about the child's mental states, b = .07, p = .013. Findings confirm that high levels of parenting stress and low PRF constitute unfavorable conditions for preschoolers' socio-cognitive development. Thus, the present study can have implication for interventions aimed at improving children's social understanding that should focus on reducing parenting stress and enhancing parental mentalizing.

Mother-infant relationship development is influenced by maternal presence, proximity, and the frequency and duration of engagement. Proximity and dyadic engagement can be challenging when an infant is hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This study examined patterns of maternal proximity and engagement in a NICU in the Southwestern United States and identified thematic categories of alternate activities to engagement. Trained observers conducted 52 h of NICU observations, documenting maternal presence, patterns of proximity, engagement, nonengagement, and alternate activities to nonengagement and focused engagement. Results include data from 88 mother-infant dyads. Of the time mothers were in proximity to their infants, 83% of these instances occurred without active engagement. In contrast, focused dyadic engagement was noted in 97% of these observations, while unfocused engagement was recorded in 65% of instances. Mothers in proximity but not actively engaged were most often observed using a smartphone, a trend that was also observed when mothers were in unfocused engagement during nurturing social contexts. While it is expected that occasional interruptions to mother-infant interaction in the NICU will occur, more studies are needed to determine the implications of both brief and prolonged disruptions during dyadic interactions on interaction quality in the NICU.

Parental reflective functioning is the parent's ability to reflect on the psychological processes in their child and in themselves as a parent. Recently, an infant version of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, PRFQ-I, has been developed and validated using confirmatory factor analyses. The present study aims to validate the PRFQ-I using a Rasch model in a sample of 531 Danish mothers at risk of depression and their infants aged 2-11 months. Our findings indicate that seven response categories were too many for the mothers to distinguish across all items. Prementalizing showed adequate psychometric properties, while Certainty of Mental States and Interest and Curiosity required recoding with 4 and 5 as the optimal scores, respectively. After rescoring, both subscales overall showed adequate psychometric properties. However, shortening Certainty of Mental States may be advisable due to local dependency between items 8 and 17. Additionally, items 2 and 14 ("I always know what my child wants" and "I always know why I do what I do to my child") may function better as a separate subscale. We recommend that scores on both Certainty of Mental States and Interest and Curiosity should be analyzed and interpreted in a curvilinear rather than linear manner.

Reflective supervision (RS) has been viewed as best practice and is therefore incorporated-and often mandated-as a key feature of many relationship-based infant and early childhood serving programs. To promote the implementation of high-quality RS for infant and early childhood professionals, it is critical that a focus is placed on how infant and early childhood professionals are trained to build RS capacities. To this end, we describe Rhode Island, United States's journey developing, implementing, and iteratively adapting an RS professional development series. We describe the structure of the curricula as well as the content and learning objectives, which strive to bridge the gap between the theoretical concepts foundational to RS, process-oriented self-reflection, and the practical application of RS skills and strategies. We also outline the development and process of iterative adaptation that has refined the curricula over the past decade. Finally, we chronicle the history of coordination and collaboration that promoted the development and implementation of this series, which has been disseminated within home visiting and early care and education settings. This narrative can serve as a model for organizations, systems, and states that are undertaking efforts to provide professional development focused on RS.

The proposed study sought to investigate whether maternal experiences of racial discrimination and gendered racial stress are associated with offspring executive functioning. Total 266 Black mother-child pairs in the United States were assessed from pregnancy through child age of 4 years. We hypothesized that children whose mothers reported higher rates of perceived gendered racial stress during pregnancy and racial discrimination throughout their lifetime would have lower scores on executive functioning assessments. Furthermore, we hypothesized that low maternal education and income would act as risk moderators whereas social support would act as a protective moderator in the associations between maternal experiences of discrimination (EOD) and child executive functioning. Main effect findings support our hypothesis of an intergenerational association between maternal EOD and gendered racial stress and lower child executive functioning scores. Income was a significant moderator. As hypothesized, the association between mothers reports of lifetime discrimination and lower child executive functioning scores was stronger at lower levels of income. In contrast, however, the association between maternal prenatal reports of gendered racial stress and lower child executive functioning scores was stronger at higher levels of maternal education and income. Social support did not have a significant moderating effect on any of the association.

Although mother-to-infant attachment begins during pregnancy, few studies have explored correlates of prenatal attachment and associations with later measures of attachment representations. This study explored whether prenatal attachment is related to attachment representations during toddlerhood and whether associations between them reflect the broader quality of mothers' relationships. Young, ethnically/racially diverse, low-income American women (n = 160) were followed from pregnancy through 30 months postpartum. Questionnaires assessed prenatal attachment (Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale [MAAS]) and mothers' relationships prenatally (Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment [IPPA]; Social Provisions Scale [SPS]). At 30 months, the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) assessed attachment representation classifications (balanced, disengaged, distorted) and affective themes. Stronger prenatal attachment was associated with balanced representations of the child, greater positive affect, and less negative affect at 30 months, even when accounting for quality of mothers' other relationships. Relationship quality generally and with the parent figure and infant's father specifically, was associated with prenatal attachment, and relationship quality with the parent figure was related to 30-month attachment representations. Findings support theory that mother-to-child attachment formed during pregnancy contributes to attachment representations and affective qualities of the relationship years later. Data highlight the role young mothers' parent figures play during the transition to parenthood.

We compared referrals and connection to care between perinatal patients: 90 receiving OB/GYN care in clinics with integrated behavioral health consultants with infant mental health specialization (IMH-BHC), and 68 receiving traditional care, in the United States. Participants identified as: Native American/Alaskan native, 1.90%; Asian, .63%; African American, 58.23%; Middle Eastern, 6.96%; African National/Caribbean Islander, .63%; Latin-American, 8.86%; and White, 28.48%. Approximately 80% of families in each group were offered referrals. By design, intervention women received mental health services during pregnancy; 16% of women in either group received postpartum mental health services. Intervention group participants were over three times as likely to engage in IMH home visiting. Treatment families were less likely to follow up with infant referrals, but also had fewer infant emergency room visits. All intervention participants met with an IMH-BHC prior to recruitment; however, only 20% self-reported encounters with a mental health professional, indicating these interactions may not be identified by the participants as mental health care; therefore, openness to treatment may be increased for women who feel stigma around mental health care. Given the importance of perinatal mental health, OB/GYN clinics and others serving perinatal patients may consider integrating IMH providers as part of the care team.

This blended pilot-empirical and theoretical manuscript documents a reflective journey undertaken by a group of early childhood teacher educators located across different regions of the United States as they examined their course design, materials, and syllabi construction. Grounded in reflective practice, intersectionality, and critical pedagogy, their collaborative endeavor necessitated profound self-examination and recognition of oppressive structures inherent within the field and reproduced throughout course syllabi, thereby perpetuating societal inequities inside and outside the classroom context. Their iterative, evolving effort resembled a reflective consultation group, marked by continuous self-reflection, challenging assumptions, and transforming actions, vividly portrayed in their vignettes. A nonlinear spiral model emerged as a visual representation of the multiple entry points into an ongoing process-highlighting access points that encourage curiosity and interrogation of academic syllabi and course content. The inclusive nature of this inquiry invites faculty members and practitioners to confront racism, ableism, and other systems of domination, amplify marginalized scholarship, and redefine early childhood education-related fields, including the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health landscape. It also underscores the imperative of sustained introspection and collaborative action in nurturing equity.

Black women are more likely to experience traumatic birthing events, more likely to experience perinatal depression, and less likely to receive mental health treatment than women of other racial and ethnic backgrounds, and yet largely overlooked in perinatal mental health research. This pilot study seeks to understand how unacceptable racial disparities and adverse perinatal outcomes influence Black maternal depression and maternal bonding by exploring how prior traumatic loss moderates the relationship between depression and bonding during a subsequent pregnancy among a sample of Black mothers. We use survey data collected from 75 Black mothers as part of the Black Fathers, Equal Partners in Promoting Maternal and Infant Health study, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin Madison and the African American Breastfeeding Network in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Study results suggest there is a correlation between maternal depression and bonding; when traumatic loss is included as an interaction variable, it produces a moderating effect, changing the direction of the relationship between bonding and depression. As maternal depression increases, bonding increases when moderated by the variable traumatic loss. This finding has important implications for infant mental health research and practice, disrupting the expectation that depression necessarily poses a risk to maternal-infant bonding.

Children born to mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at increased risk of maltreatment and out-of-home care (OOHC) placement. This study examines the parent-child interaction quality and home environments of 92 New Zealand children with prenatal opioid exposure (OE) and 106 non-opioid-exposed (NE) children. Experiences for those in maternal care versus OOHC were of particular interest. Biological mothers completed a lifestyle interview during late pregnancy/at birth. At 18 months, parent-child interaction observations, maternal/primary caregiver interviews, and the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment were completed during a home visit. At age 4.5, children underwent developmental assessment. By 18 months, 20% of OE children were in OOHC. Mothers with OUD who were younger, less cooperative, and had increased polysubstance use during pregnancy were more likely to have lost custody of their child. OE children in their mother's care experienced less positive parenting and lower-quality home environments than NE children. OE children in OOHC had similarly resourced environments to NE children, yet experienced lower levels of parental warmth and responsiveness. Early parenting predicted child cognition, language, and behavior 3 years later, underscoring the critical importance of supporting the parenting and psychosocial needs of OE children's parents/caregivers to improve long-term outcomes.

This study is the first to explore the relation between children's attachment classifications, assessed by Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), and mothers' acceptance-rejection behaviors from the lens of Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory). As a pilot study, the sample consisted of 23 Egyptian mother-child dyads. The mean age of children in the SSP was 18.6 months (SD = 3.10). Mothers' acceptance-rejection behaviors were explored through the Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (PARQ/Control). The pilot study's findings revealed that maternal acceptance-rejection behaviors significantly differed across children's attachment classifications. The findings also shed light on gender differences in parenting, as mothers tended to show a higher level of hostility/aggression, undifferentiated rejection, and control with their daughters more than sons. This study is an important stepping-stone for attachment research in the Arab world. It highlights several cultural aspects to be taken into account for future research using the SSP in Egypt or any other Arab country.