Psychological Impact of Stress- and Trauma-Related Events in Early Years of Parenthood

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, there has been increasing focus on the psychological impact of stressful and traumatic experiences in early years of parenthood (that is, neonatal period, early and second childhood). This was, for example, seen in the proliferation of empirical findings on the negative consequences for parent mental health, with implications for the quality of early relationships and child development. However, research on psychological reactions to stress- and trauma-related experiences has mainly focused on one parent, usually mothers, and within a dyadic perspective.

More recently, the investigation of the perspectives of the partner, as well as of the exploration of the wider family relationships have received increasing interest among researchers, highlighting the opportunity to learn, on the one hand, how the family context affects the psychological impact of a negative events and, on the other hand, how stress- and trauma-related experiences may affect the entire family system.

Deeping knowledge on this field within a systemic perspective might help to identify risk and protective factors within the family context useful to promote therapeutic interventions for reducing the risk of chronic and pervasive negative outcomes at individual, dyadic, as well as at family level.

Manuscripts addressing the following topics will be especially welcomed: the psychological impact of stressful and traumatic experiences on one or both parents’ and family mental health; the reciprocal influences or the associations between family members’ psychological functioning after a stressful or traumatic event; the impact of one or both parents’ mental health on other relevant outcomes, such as family relationships, and different aspects of child development, and vice versa.

Furthermore, empirical studies considering the role of risk and protective factors within the family system useful for implementing therapeutic interventions for preventing or reducing the risk of chronic and pervasive negative outcomes at individual, dyadic, and family level are of special interest for submission to this issue.

Authors are encouraged to prepare a short abstract to be sent to the Guest Editor in advance to assess the pertinence of their proposal.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in IJERPH.

Dr. Federica Genova
Guest Editor

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• stress-related events
• trauma-related events
• psychological adjustment
• parenthood
• first years of life

• Psychological Impact of Stress- and Trauma-Related Events in Early Years of Parenthood in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (1 article)