**About the Editor**

#### **Francesca Agostini**

Francesca Agostini, PhD in Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapist, Associate Professor in Dynamic Psychology at Department of Psychology, University of Bologna (Italy). Her general interests regard mental health during childhood and developmental psychopathology in the first years of life. Her main scientific interests focus on perinatal mental health, with qualitative investigations and quantitative research on two main areas. The first one regards the study of the transition to motherhood and fatherhood, including analysis of mental representations, identification of psychosocial risk factors and specific parenting risk contexts (such as severe preterm birth). The second area is represented by the study of perinatal psychopathology, with an emphasis on clinical expressions of perinatal depression and anxiety in women and men and on the development of instruments for the screening and early detection. She currently leads the Developmental Psychodynamic Laboratory and the Clinical services of psychological support for childhood at the Department of Psychology, University of Bologna.
