Infant mental health (IMH) is a growing area of practice for health, education and social care practitioners, as links are increasingly made between experiences in the early years and subsequent child development, mental health and well-being. It is unclear how parents perceive IMH and use knowledge relating to IMH with their children. We conducted a systematic review, the aim of which was to determine parents’ perceptions of IMH and how they utilize this knowledge with their infants. We undertook a search of relevant databases and journals and from an initial list of 4147 potential papers, identified 16 for the review. Original data were extracted and presented in a table, and the content of all papers was analysed thematically and presented in narrative form. Three main themes emerged from the available research: knowledge and understanding of child development, influences of society and culture, and interpretation of emotions and expressions. Our results indicate that research is limited in terms of parental perspectives of IMH and how they obtain and use this knowledge. Further research is needed to investigate this topic to maximize mental well-being in infancy and later life.
AinsworthMDSBellSMStaytonDJ (1974) Infant-mother attachment and social development: socialization as a product of reciprocal responsiveness to signals. In: RichardsMP (ed) The Integration of a Child Into a Social World. London: Cambridge University Press, pp. 91–135.
2.
AllenG (2011) Early Interactions: The Next Steps. An Independent Report to Her Majesty’s Government. January. London: Cabinet Office.
3.
BerryJW (1969) On cross cultural comparability. International Journal of Psychology4(2): 119–128.
4.
BornsteinMPutnickDSuwalskyJ (2012) A longitudinal process analysis of mother-child emotional relationships in a rural Appalachian European American community. American Journal of Community Psychology50(1-2): 89–100.
5.
BornsteinMHCoteLRVenutiP (2001) Parenting beliefs and behaviors in northern and southern groups of Italian mothers of young infants. Journal of Family Psychology15(4): 663–675.
6.
BrymanA (2012) Social Research Methods. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (2009) Systematic Reviews; CRD’s Guidance for Undertaking Reviews in Health Care. York: University of York.
9.
DallasCWilsonTSalgadoV (2000) Gender differences in teen parents’ perceptions of parental responsibilities. Public Health Nursing17(6): 423–433.
10.
DegotardiSTorrJCrossT (2008) ‘He’s got a mind of his own’: the development of a framework for determining mothers’ beliefs about their infants’ minds. Early Childhood Research Quarterly23(2): 259–271.
11.
Department Health, United Kingdom and NHS England (2015) Future in Mind; Promoting, Protecting and Improving our Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing. NHS England Publication Gateway Ref. No 02939. London: Department of Health.
12.
Dixon WoodsMAgarwalSYoungB. (2004) Integrative Approaches to Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence. London: Health Development Agency.
13.
DonovanWTaylorNLeavittL (2007) Maternal self-efficacy, knowledge of infant development, sensory sensitivity, and maternal response during interaction. Developmental Psychology43(4): 865–876.
14.
EmdeRNButterfieldPMOsofskyJD (1987) IFEEL Pictures Infant Facial Expressions of Emotions From Looking at Pictures. Denver CO: University of Colorado School of Medicine.
15.
FitzgeraldHEBartonL (2000) Infant mental health: Origins and emergence of an interdisciplinary field. In: OsofskyJFitzgeraldHE (eds) WAIMH Handbook of Infant Mental Health. Volume 1: Perspectives on Infant Mental Health. New York: Wiley, pp. 1–36.
16.
FoxSELevittPNelsonCA (2010) How the timing and quality of early experiences influence the development of brain architecture. Child Development81(1): 28–40.
17.
FryersTBrughaT (2013) Childhood determinants of adult psychiatric disorder. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health9: 1–50.
18.
GreenM (1994) Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents. Arlington, VA: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health.
19.
GubaEGLincolnYS (2008) Paradigmatic controversies, contraditions, and emerging confluences. In: DenzinNKLincolnYS (eds) The Landscape of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, pp. 255–286.
20.
HaneAAFoxNAPolak TosteC. (2006) Contextual basis of maternal perceptions of infant temperament. Developmental Psychology42(6): 1077–1088.
21.
HarwoodRL (1992) The influence of culturally derived values on Anglo and Puerto Rican mothers’ perceptions of attachment behavior. Child Development63(4): 822–839.
22.
HarwoodRLSchoelmerichAVentura-CookE. (1996) Culture and class influences on Anglo and Puerto Rican mothers’ beliefs regarding long-term. Child Development67(5): 2446–2461.
23.
HaysS (1996) The Cultural Contradiction of Mother-hood. New Haven: Yale University Press.
24.
HenrichJHeineSJNorenzayanA (2010) The weirdest people in the world?Behavioral and Brain Sciences33(2-3): 61–83.
25.
HuangKYO’Brien CaughyMGenevroJL. (2005) Maternal knowledge of child development and quality of parenting among white, African-American and hispanic Mothers. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology: An International Lifespan Journal26(2): 149–170.
26.
IrwinLGSiddiqiAHertzmanC (2007) Early child development: A powerful equalizer. Final Report for the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, June.
27.
JesseeAMcElwainNLBooth La ForceC (2016) Maternal supportive behavior, cognitive talk, and desire/emotion talk at 24 months: Distinct factors and differential antecedents. Parenting: Science and Practice16(2): 63–86.
28.
KellerH (2017) Cultural and historical diversity in early relationship formation. European Journal of Developmental Psychology14(6): 700–713.
29.
KellerHLohausAVölkerS. (2003) Warmth and contingency and their relationship to maternal attitudes toward parenting. The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development164(3): 275–292.
30.
KmetLMLeeRCCookLS (2004) Standard quality assessment criteria for evaluating primary research papers from a variety of fields. Paper prepared for HTA Initiative#13 Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, Alberta, Canada.
31.
KnickmeyerRCGouttardSKangC. (2008) A structural MRI study of human brain development from birth to 2 years. Journal of Neuroscience28(47): 12176–12182.
32.
KurthEKennedyHPZemp StutzE. (2014) Responding to a crying infant – you do not learn it overnight: a phenomenological study. Midwifery30(6): 742–749.
33.
LewisM (2005) The child and its family: the social network model. Human Development48(1-2): 8–27.
34.
LowePLeeEMacvarishJ (2015) Biologising parenting: neuroscience discourse, English social and public health policy and understanding of the child. Sociology of Health and Illness37(2): 198–211.
35.
MillerAMHarwoodRL (2002) The cultural organization of parenting: change and stability of behavior patterns during feeding and social play across the first year of life. Parenting2(3): 241–272.
36.
MoscardinoUNwobuOAxiaG (2006) Cultural beliefs and practices related to infant health and development among Nigerian immigrant mothers in Italy. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology24(3): 241–255.
37.
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (1999) Child care and mother-child interaction in the first three years of life. Developmental Psychology35(6): 1399–1413.
RogoffB (2003) The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
40.
SanesJJessellTM (2013) Experience and the refinement of synaptic connections. In: KandelERSchwartzJHJessellTMSiegelbaumSAJessellTMSiegelbaumSAHudspethAJMackS (eds) Principles of Neural Science. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill Professional, pp. 1259–1283.
41.
SeoSJ (2006) A study of infant developmental outcome with a sample of Korean working mothers of infants in poverty: Implications for early intervention program. Early Childhood Education Journal33(4): 253–260.
42.
SheridanMNelsonCA (2009) Neurobiology of fetal and infant development. In: ZeanahCH (ed) Handbook of Infant Mental Health. 3rd ed. New York: Guildford Press, pp. 40–58.
43.
StoiberKCHoughtonTG (1993) The relationship of adolescent mothers’ expectations, knowledge, and beliefs to their young children’s coping behavior. Infant Mental Health Journal14(1): 61–79.
44.
SuperCMHarknessS (1986) The developmental niche: a conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioural Development9(4): 545–569.
45.
SuperCMHarknessS (2010) Culture and infancy. In: BremnerJGWachsTD (eds) The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Infant Development. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 623–649.
46.
TronickEZBeeghlyM (2011) Infants’ meaning-making and the development of mental health problems. The American Psychologist66(2): 107–119.
47.
TurnerJMWittkowskiAHareDJ (2008) The relationship of maternal mentalization and executive functioning to maternal recognition of infant cues and bonding. British Journal Of Psychology99(4): 499–512.
48.
WeisnerTS (1996) Why ethnography should be the most important method in the study of human development. In: JessorRColbyASchwederRA (eds) Ethnography and Human Development. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 305–324.
49.
WeisnerTS (2002) Ecocultural understanding of children’s developmental pathways. Human Development45(4): 275–281.
50.
WeisnerTS (2005) Attachment as a cultural and ecological problem with pluralistic solutions. Human Development48(1–2): 89–94.
51.
WeisnerTS (2014) Why qualitative and ethnographic methods are essential for understanding family life. In: McHaleSMAmatoPRBoothA (eds) Emerging Methods in Family Research. National Symposium on Family Issues, Vol. 4. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 163–178.
52.
WhitingPSavovićJHigginsJ (2016) ROBIS: A new tool to assess risk of bias in systematic reviews was developed. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology69: 225–234.
ZeanahCHZeanahPD (2009) The scope of infant mental health. In ZeanahCH (ed) Handbook of Infant Mental Health. 3rd ed. New York: Guildford Press, pp. 5–21.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
