Skip to main content

Parental Health and Early Child Development

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Mental Health and Illness of Children and Adolescents

Part of the book series: Mental Health and Illness Worldwide ((MHIW))

  • 219 Accesses

Abstract

The period from pregnancy to age 3 is when children are most susceptible to environmental influences. The period lays the foundation for health, well-being, learning, and productivity throughout a person’s whole life and has an impact on the health and well-being of the next generation. The biggest threats are extreme poverty, insecurity, gender inequities, violence, environmental toxins, and poor mental health. All of these things affect parental health.

Children’s early development requires nurturing care – defined as health, nutrition, security and safety, responsive caregiving, and early learning – provided by parent and child interactions and supported by an environment that enables these interactions. Early childhood development programs vary in coordination and quality, with inadequate and inequitable access, especially for children younger than 3 years. To provide it, parents and their families – in all their diversity and all their forms, biological and social – need information, resources, and services.

Effective and sustainable interventions to improve developmental outcomes need to promote nurturing care and protection, be implemented as packages that target multiple risks, be applied at developmentally appropriate times during the life course, be of high quality, and build on existing delivery platforms to enhance feasibility of scaling-up and sustainability.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aktar E, Qu J, Lawrence PJ, Tollenaar MS, Elzinga BM, Bogels SM (2019) Fetal and infant outcomes in the offspring of parents with perinatal mental disorders: earliest influences. Front Psych 10:391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barker DJ (1995) Fetal origins of coronary heart disease. BMJ 311(6998):171–174

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barker DJ (2007) The origins of the developmental origins theory. J Intern Med 261(5):412–417

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Birmaher B, Axelson D, Monk K, Kalas C, Goldstein B, Hickey MB, Obreja M, Ehmann M, Iyengar S, Shamseddeen W, Kupfer D, Brent D (2009) Lifetime psychiatric disorders in school-aged offspring of parents with bipolar disorder: the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 66(3):287–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black MM, Dewey KG (2014) Promoting equity through integrated early child development and nutrition interventions. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1308(1):1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black RE, Allen LH, Bhutta ZA, Caulfield LE, De Onis M, Ezzati M, Mathers C, Rivera J, Maternal and Child Undernutrition Study Group (2008) Maternal and child undernutrition: global and regional exposures and health consequences. Lancet 371(9608):243–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black MM, Walker SP, Fernald LC, Andersen CT, DiGirolamo AM, Lu C, McCoy DC, Fink G, Shawar YR, Shiffman J, Devercelli AE, Wodon QT, Vargas-Barón E, Grantham-McGregor S, Lancet Early Childhood Development Series Steering Committee (2017) Early childhood development coming of age: science through the life course. Lancet 389(10064):77–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce PM (2003) Risk factors for postnatal depression: a review and risk factors in Australian populations. Arch Womens Ment Health 6(Suppl 2):S43–S50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-003-0005-9. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14615922

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brent BK, Holt DJ, Keshavan MS (2014) Mentalization-based treatment for psychosis: linking an attachment-based model to the psychotherapy for impaired mental state understanding in people with psychotic disorders. Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci 51(1):17

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brent DA, Brunwasser SM, Hollon SD, Weersing VR, Clarke GN, Dickerson JF, Beardslee W, Gladstone TRG, Porta G, Lynch FL, Iyengar S, Garber J (2015) Effect of a cognitive-behavioral prevention program on depression 6 years after implementation among at-risk adolescents: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiat 72(11):1110–1118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Britto PR, Lye SJ, Proulx K, Yousafzai AK, Matthews SG, Vaivada T, Perez-Escamilla R, Rao N, Ip P, Fernald LC, MacMillan H, Hanson M, Wachs TD, Yao H, Yoshikawa H, Cerezo A, Leckman JF, Bhutta ZA, Early Childhood Development Interventions Review Group, for the Lancet Early Childhood Development Series Steering Committee (2017) Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development. Lancet 389(10064):91–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun S, Conner E, Miller M, Messina N (2015) Improving the outcomes of children affected by parental substance abuse: a review of randomized controlled trials. Subst Abus Rehabil 6:15

    Google Scholar 

  • Charpak N, Tessier R, Ruiz JG, Hernandez JT, Uriza F, Villegas J, Nadeau L, Mercier C, Maheu F, Marin J, Cortes D, Gallego JM, Maldonado D (2017) Twenty-year follow-up of kangaroo mother care versus traditional care. Pediatrics 139(1):e20162063

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen YY, Weitzman ER (2005) Depressive symptoms, DSM-IV alcohol abuse and their comorbidity among children of problem drinkers in a national survey: effects of parent and child gender and parent recovery status. J Stud Alcohol 66(1):66–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engle PL, Pelto GH (2011) Responsive feeding: implications for policy and program implementation. J Nutr 141(3):508–511

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gutierrez-Galve L, Stein A, Hanington L, Heron J, Lewis G, O’Farrelly C, Ramchandani PG (2019) Association of maternal and paternal depression in the postnatal period with offspring depression at age 18 years. JAMA Psychiat 76(3):290–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz JA, Murphy CA, Gregory K, Wojcik J, Pulcini J, Solon L (2013) Nurse home visits improve maternal/infant interaction and decrease severity of postpartum depression. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs 42(3):287–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lagercrantz H (2016) Origin of the mind and basic construction of the brain. In: Infant brain development. Springer: Switzerland AG, pp 1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray L (1992) The impact of postnatal depression on infant development. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 33(3):543–561

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Olds DL (2010) The nurse-family partnership: from trials to practice. In: Childhood programs and practices in the first decade of life: a human capital integration. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 49–75

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Richter LM, Daelmans B, Lombardi J, Heymann J, Boo FL, Behrman JR, Lu C, Lucas JE, Perez-Escamilla R, Dua T, Bhutta ZA, Stenberg K, Gertler P, Darmstadt GL, Paper 3 Working Group and the Lancet Early Childhood Development Series Steering Committee (2017) Investing in the foundation of sustainable development: pathways to scale up for early childhood development. Lancet 389(10064):103–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rollins NC, Bhandari N, Hajeebhoy N, Horton S, Lutter CK, Martines JC, Piwoz EG, Richter LM, Victora CG, Lancet Breastfeeding Series Group (2016) Why invest, and what it will take to improve breastfeeding practices? Lancet 387(10017):491–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Safi-Stibler S, Gabory A (2019) Epigenetics and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: parental environment signalling to the epigenome, critical time windows and sculpting the adult phenotype. Paper presented at the Seminars in cell & developmental biology

    Google Scholar 

  • Shonkoff JP, Garner AS, Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption, and Dependent Care, Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (2012) The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics 129(1):e232–e246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stein A, Harold G (2015) Impact of parental psychiatric disorder and physical illness. In: Thapar A, Pine DS, Leckman JF, Scott S, Snowling MJ, Taylor E (eds) Rutter’s child and adolescent psychiatry, 6th edn. John Wiley & Sons: West Sussex UK, p 352

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein A, Netsi E, Lawrence PJ, Granger C, Kempton C, Craske MG, Nickless A, Mollison J, Stewart DA, Rapa E, West V, Scerif G, Cooper PJ, Murray L (2018) Mitigating the impact of persistent postnatal depression on child outcomes: a randomised controlled trial of an intervention to treat depression and improve parenting. Lancet Psychiatry 5(2):134–144

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroshi Yamashita .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Yamashita, H., Yamane, K., Katsuki, D., Yoshida, K. (2020). Parental Health and Early Child Development. In: Taylor, E., Verhulst, F., Wong, J., Yoshida, K., Nikapota, A. (eds) Mental Health and Illness of Children and Adolescents. Mental Health and Illness Worldwide. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0753-8_27-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0753-8_27-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0753-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0753-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics