Family environment plays a very important role in early child development and the availability of stimulating material in the early years of a child's life is crucial for optimising development. The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) inventory is one of the most widely used measures to assess the quality and quantity…

This community pilot study was designed to evaluate a small group intervention, Right From The Start (RFTS), in terms of the benefits it provides to adolescent mothers specifically. The effectiveness of the programme was examined in the areas of maternal sensitivity, parenting confidence, parenting stress, and postnatal depression. RFTS has been…

The primary relationship undermines how a newborn will develop. The first three years of a child's life in particular are fundamental for the development of the child's brain. This is when the "social brain" develops and grows in response to the spontaneous relationships experienced within the environment and when an…

Researchers question the implications of the way in which "motherhood" is constructed in public health discourse. Current nutritional guidelines for Danish parents of young children are part of this discourse. They are shaped by an assumed symbiotic relationship between the nutritional needs of the child and the interest and focus of the…

Toddlers experience stress and express distress during routine paediatric examinations with immunisation. Adjustment to this situation is important, as distress and pain are interrelated. A negative experience of immunisation of their child, moreover, is often mentioned by parents as a reason for refusing routine vaccinations. This paper focuses…

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious problem for children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV). Recent changes to diagnostic criteria for PTSD include a reduction in avoidance symptom criteria from three to one and the separation of emotional numbing from avoidance symptoms, thus creating a need to better understand how…

The subject of engaging mothers in appropriate family support continues to be debated and this paper explores the complex factors that influenced one mother's willingness to accept support. In addition, it captures how her family support worker built and sustained a "help-providing" and "help-receiving" relationship…

Some parenting behaviours and child characteristics can result in future behavioural problems. Relatively little is known about parenting behaviours in Pakistani-origin women, and how the timing of migration to the United Kingdom might affect such behaviours. We analysed differences in parenting behaviours and six-month infant temperament by…

This study aimed to assess possible association between swaddling and sleep behaviour in two-month-old infants. It comprised 198 apparently healthy infants from the community setting selected by chance (86 boys, 112 girls), aged two months, who were singletons born in St Petersburg in 2007. The mothers were asked to complete the questionnaires…

Although child maltreatment due to abuse or neglect is pervasive within our society, less is known about fabricated or induced illness by carers (FII), which is considered to be a rare form of child abuse. FII occurs when a caregiver (in 93% of cases, the mother) misrepresents the child as ill either by fabricating, or much more rarely, producing…

Studies focusing on mothers' own reports of their experience with intervention programmes are rare, so very little has been known about their evaluations of the programmes and what they have learned. The aim of the present study was to use interviews to evaluate these aspects of an intervention programme. The interviews were designed to capture…

The majority of mothers in Ireland provide formula milk to their infants during the initial weeks postpartum; however, data are lacking on their formula feeding practices and support needs. This prospective Dublin-based observational study, which included 450 eligible mother-term infant pairs recruited and followed up to six months postpartum,…

Divorce or separation is one route towards addressing high conflict in marriages and may be a key route out of situations of significant domestic violence for women and children. However, divorce has been associated with feminisation of poverty and other negative outcomes which can be further exacerbated for victimised women. While there has been…

Preschool children who witness severe intimate partner violence (IPV) are at increased risk for a wide range of emotional, behavioural, cognitive, and health problems. Although much of intervention research has focused on alleviating their psychological symptoms, we know little about efforts to provide these children with preventative safety…

Drawing on a three-year Irish research study, this paper focuses on the decision-making process in child contact, specifically the assessment and management of risk of continuing abuse to young people previously exposed to domestic abuse. A mixed methodological approach involved the completion of survey questionnaires by 219 mothers and the…