Long-Term Child and Family Outcomes After High-Risk Birth: Present and Future Challenges
A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Mental Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 June 2026 | Viewed by 53
Special Issue Editors
Interests: preterm birth; multiple birth; long-term follow-up; neurodevelopment; parenting; family systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: follow through; high-risk infants; digital technology; impact on family; educational outcomes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce our plans to publish a Special Issue entitled “Long-Term Child and Family Outcomes After High-Risk Birth: Present and Future Challenges”. High-risk birthing events create a complex landscape of medical, financial, functional, and developmental difficulties for families. Research shows that high-risk birth significantly increases the risk of child developmental concerns across domains of cognition, behaviour, socioemotional regulation, neurodevelopment, and academic outcomes. The overall conditions surrounding a high-risk birth undoubtedly have the potential to bidirectionally impact long-term child development. Despite this, empirical investigations on the impact of the family system on the child are limited. Therefore, to broaden the scope of investigation, this Special Issue will bring together international expertise, highlighting both challenges and strengths in child development after a high-risk birth.
Your contributions to this Special Issue could cover a wide range of areas, including, but not limited to, the following topics:
- The characterisation of long-term outcomes for high-risk infants during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood;
- The evaluation of family and environmental risk factors in child development, such as parenting, attachment and bonding, sociodemographic indicators, and family adaptations;
- Exploration of the role of different caregivers on long-term child development, for example, birthing parents, non-birthing parents, and grandparents;
- Investigations into strengths-based child outcomes.
Dr. Grace C. Fitzallen
Dr. Ashwini Lakshmanan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- neonatal
- high-risk Infant
- follow-up
- child Development
- neurodevelopment
- mental Health
- family
- parenting
- postpartum
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