Conceptualization of the Field of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health

Infant and early childhood mental health is an emerging interdisciplinary field which has seen rapid growth over the last 30 years. This introductory chapter presents an overview and lays out the themes on which the remaining chapters of the book elaborate. It begins with a history of the field and then presents several definitions of infant and early childhood mental health, followed by a survey of theoretical models which attempt to conceptualize infant and early childhood mental health. Current empirical research in child development, based on the assumption that infants develop within a family context, posits that development is best understood in terms of the relationship between infants and the adults around them and infants’ temperament (i.e., their inborn characteristics). Consolidating a sense of self and making sense of the world results from transactions between the developing infant and a responsive environment.