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Parenting across the Lifespan: Perinatal Mental Health, Infant Feeding, and...
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Parenting across the Lifespan: Perinatal Mental Health, Infant Feeding, and Child Development

A special issue of European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (ISSN 2254-9625).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2025 | Viewed by 2289

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Leanne Jackson

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Interests: perinatal mental health; infant feeding; morality; guilt and shame; qualitative research methods; maternal–infant bonding; infant development; psychometric development and validation; feasibility studies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Parenthood is a significant life course transition, characterized by self-fulfillment and joy. However, it can also be a time of notable distress.

New parents are commonly exposed to contradictory discourse about what constitutes ‘good’ parenting. Varying attitudes and beliefs can render new parenthood a confusing transitional period. One of the largest topics of contention regarding parenting is that of infant feeding. Indeed, a complex bidirectional relationship exists between perinatal mental health and both infant feeding outcomes and experiences. Failure to meet one’s infant feeding goals can increase the risk of experiencing postnatal psychological distress. Guilt and shame can be defined as transdiagnostic phenomena, underscoring the onset and maintenance of a range of psychological disorders and symptoms, such as postnatal depression and anxiety. Non-clinical interventions, such as peer support, have demonstrated utility in improving postnatal emotional wellbeing outcomes.

The quality of the mother–infant relationship impacts maternal perceptions of infant responsiveness to satiety and hunger cues. Likewise, breastfeeding practices are correlated with positive mother–infant bonding and with positive sociocognitive infant development outcomes. To accurately measure perinatal mental health and infant feeding outcomes, development and validation of context-specific psychometric measures is imperative.

Elevated maternal distress is significantly associated with insecure attachment between an infant and their primary caregiver, the effects of which can extend into early adulthood. Poor mother–infant attachment has been evidenced to negatively impact socioemotional development and educational attainment in later childhood. Likewise, infant feeding practices in the first six months of life form habits pertaining to responsiveness to hunger and satiety cues in later childhood, affecting long-term eating and lifestyle behaviors. Cross-sectional and longitudinal mapping of the relationships between maternal mental health, infant feeding, and child development outcomes is, thus, needed to promote beneficial psychological and physical health outcomes across the life course.

For this Special Issue, we invite you to submit original articles (both qualitative and quantitative analysis, both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies) and systematic review works on parent-focused psychological wellbeing and its relationship with infant feeding, mother–infant bonding, and childhood development. Papers with a focus on psychometric measurement and/or interventions aiming to improve psychological outcomes in the perinatal period are also encouraged.

Dr. Leanne Jackson
Guest Editor

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. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education 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 1400 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

  • infant feeding
  • perinatal mental health
  • guilt and shame
  • morality

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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19 pages, 337 KiB  
Article
‘Some Days Are Not a Good Day to Be a Mum’: Exploring Lived Experiences of Guilt and Shame in the Early Postpartum Period
by Leanne Jackson, Emily O’Donoghue, Jasmin Helm, Rita Gentilcore and Anisha Hussain
Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ. 2024, 14(12), 3019-3038; https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe14120198 - 2 Dec 2024
Viewed by 415
Abstract
The first 16 weeks postpartum are particularly challenging for a new mother and are associated with an elevated risk of experiencing psychological distress. Guilt and shame have been identified as significant predictors of other forms of psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression. [...] Read more.
The first 16 weeks postpartum are particularly challenging for a new mother and are associated with an elevated risk of experiencing psychological distress. Guilt and shame have been identified as significant predictors of other forms of psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression. However, guilt and shame are poorly distinguished in pre-existing literature. The current study used inductive thematic analysis to explore lived experiences of guilt and shame in the early postpartum period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 women who had given birth in the past 16 weeks and who were residing in the UK at the time of the investigation. All those interviewed had internalised unrealistic mothering ideals. Physical constraints on one’s parenting abilities, due to birth recovery, exacerbated postpartum guilt and shame. Other sources of guilt and shame included body dissatisfaction and making comparisons against other mothers and media depictions of motherhood. Participants were hesitant to confide in others about parenting challenges due to fears of judgement, which perpetuated the shame-concealment cycle. Future research should prioritise the development of interventions designed to target a harsh parenting inner critic, and the re-framing of cognitive biases, to nurture more realistic and self-compassionate beliefs about motherhood. For practice, current findings mirror previous calls for intimate partners to be actively included in routine appointments, to provide healthcare practitioners with specialist training in postpartum mental health, and to educate mothers on responsible social media use. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Parenting across the Lifespan: Perinatal Mental Health, Infant Feeding, and Child Development)
18 pages, 1370 KiB  
Article
Parental Burnout—A Model of Risk Factors and Protective Resources Among Mothers of Children with/Without Special Needs
by Yifat Findling, Michal Itzhaki and Sivia Barnoy
Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ. 2024, 14(11), 2883-2900; https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe14110189 - 11 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1118
Abstract
Parents of children With Special Needs and Disabilities (W-SND) who require long-term healthcare are at high risk of Parental Burnout (PB). However, most studies have focused on PB among parents of children Without Special Needs (WO-SN). This study aimed to develop a new [...] Read more.
Parents of children With Special Needs and Disabilities (W-SND) who require long-term healthcare are at high risk of Parental Burnout (PB). However, most studies have focused on PB among parents of children Without Special Needs (WO-SN). This study aimed to develop a new model explaining PB of mothers of children W-SND/WO-SN. The main hypothesis was that the nexus of correlations between risk factors of PB (severity of child’s disability/challenge, perceived caregiver burden) and protective resources (social support, learned resourcefulness, deep emotion work) will explain the variance of PB of mothers of children W-SND and WO-SN. A questionnaire assessing PB, its risk factors, and protective resources was completed by 352 Israeli mothers of children W-SND (mean age 36.9) or WO-SN (mean age 32.3). The child’s disabilities were communicative, physical, intellectual and developmental. The main results are that mothers of children W-SND reported higher PB, higher caregiver burden, and a higher severity of disability. About 50% of PB variance was significantly explained by the nexus of correlations between selected risk and protective factors. Among all mothers, the more social support they received, the higher their learned-resourcefulness. However, learned resourcefulness mediates the correlation between caregiver burden and PB among mothers of children W-SND. Accordingly, it is important to increase awareness among healthcare professionals regarding the risk factors and symptoms of PB, and to develop workshops on protective resources in order to prevent PB and promote mothers’ well-being. Further research should be conducted among fathers and parents from diverse cultures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Parenting across the Lifespan: Perinatal Mental Health, Infant Feeding, and Child Development)
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