Parental Mental Health and Child Development
A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Mental Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 January 2026 | Viewed by 877
Special Issue Editors
Interests: child development and mental health; developmental psychology and psycho-pathology; gifted and high-ability children; autism spectrum disorder; parenting; developmental disabilities
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Mental health problems in both mothers and fathers, including postpartum depression, parental stress, and anxiety arising from diverse biopsychosocial, and environmental causes, can affect their parenting capacity and the way a child thinks, feels or behaves. Consequently, children may be vulnerable to developing mental health problems themselves and this may elevate the risk for psychological and behavioral challenges, along with academic underachievement and other adverse outcomes. Optimal parental mental health and positive parenting can influence a child's development and well-being from the prenatal period through childhood and adolescence, hence strengthening parent–child attachment and bonding. This, in turn, promotes parenting practices that cultivate secure relationships and emotional regulation skills in the child.
This Special Issue entitled “Parental Mental Health and Child Development” aims to gather high-quality research examining the impact of parental mental health and familial factors on child development, from infancy to adolescence, as well as how children's activities and behaviors may impose emotional strain and pressure on parents, which in turn impacts the care provided to the child. This Special Issue addresses several aspects of child development, encompassing cognitive growth, socioemotional and personality development, academic performance, and social relationships. We encourage authors to incorporate several methodological approaches, including cross-sectional designs, longitudinal studies, qualitative and mixed-methods research. Furthermore, the inclusion of studies that connect theory and practice, such as interventions involving parents and children, is recommended. Additionally, literature reviews, encompassing scoping reviews and systematic reviews that examine the interplay between parental mental health and its effects on child developmental outcomes, are encouraged. We expect this Special Issue to yield significant theoretical advances and meaningful research implications for practice.
Dr. Dimitrios Papadopoulos
Prof. Dr. Katerina Maniadaki
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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
- child development
- developmental psychology and psychopathology
- parenting
- mental health
- family
- positive development
- cognition
- emotion
- behavior
- wellbeing
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