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

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 (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.

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