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Objective This study explores the father's paternal role and relationships when his partner and baby are admitted to a Perinatal Mental Health Unit. It contributes to an important and understudied area of perinatal mental health and makes clinical recommendations. Background The importance of establishing good attachment in the first months of life has had increasing prominence in the development of good infant mental health in the last 60 years. Parental mental health and separation can negatively impact attachment. Furthermore, maternal postnatal mental health is known to affect the father's well-being which could impact on his ability to parent sensitively. Methods Grounded theory methodology was used. Eight fathers were recruited from two Perinatal Mental Health Units. Transcripts were analysed and compared by researchers. Resulting categories were checked with one participant. 2 Results Fathers described the difficult experience they managed whilst creating and maintaining family bonds. Long admissions with infrequent visits were most difficult. Fathers wanted to bond and had concerns about bonding. They aimed to preserve the mother-baby bond. Fathers relied on family support. The couple's relationship was strained. Fathers experienced anxiety regarding the illness and felt relief when their partner was admitted. Fathers were uncertain about illness and treatment, and desired improved communication with professionals. Conclusion Severe maternal postnatal mental illness and inpatient admission affects fathers. Fathers were not consistently available to babies, which could affect attachment and child development. Recognition of the father's experience and increasing father's knowledge of illness and skills in caregiving is recommended.

The present study aimed to determine if emotion regulation mediates the relationship between emotional maltreatment and disordered eating behavior in adolescents. Participants were 222 secondary school pupils (aged 14-18 years) from a state high school in the UK. Standardized questionnaire measures were used to gather self-report data on emotional abuse and emotional neglect, functional and dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies and disordered eating behavior. Results showed that disordered eating was associated with emotional abuse, dysfunctional emotion regulation and being female. Multiple mediation analysis found an indirect relationship between emotional abuse and disordered eating through dysfunctional emotion regulation. Interestingly, emotional neglect predicted lower levels of functional emotion regulation. The findings support previous research showing emotion regulation to mediate the relationship between childhood abuse and disordered eating in adults and a differential effect of abuse and neglect on emotion regulation. Longitudinal studies are required to confirm the direction of relationships; however these data suggest that dysfunctional emotion regulation is a significant variable in the development of disordered eating and may be a useful target for intervention.

Children who have been adopted or fostered are at high risk of experiencing interpersonal difficulties and placement breakdown may occur if these difficulties are not addressed through interventions. The aim of this review was to identify the impact of attachment interventions with foster and adoptive parents on children's behavioural, emotional and relational functioning. A systematic search process was undertaken; electronic databases were searched; key journals were hand searched; reference lists of included articles were searched; and authors who have published work in the field were contacted. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. There is some evidence to support the positive impact of these interventions for children, particularly young children aged six months to six years. However, overall, the studies were of relatively poor methodological quality, making conclusions about the efficacy of these interventions difficult. Further research is therefore required to draw clearer conclusions about the impact of attachment interventions for fostered and adopted children. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGES:• A number of the reviewed studies reported positive outcomes in child behavioural functioning and to a lesser degree in emotional and relational functioning following intervention.• Interventions focused on constructs such as parental sensitivity, attunement to the child and the impact of abuse and neglect on attachment to new caregivers.• When quality criteria were applied, two studies focused on children aged six months to six years were found to be methodologically strong, providing some evidence for the benefit of early attachment-based interventions within this population.

The relationship between maternal childhood emotional abuse/neglect and parenting outcomes: A Systematic Review. AbstractThis paper reviews the evidence concerning the association between reported maternal childhood experience of emotional abuse and/or neglect and subsequent parenting outcomes. Relevant studies were identified through a systematic search of four electronic databases using a pre-determined keyword search. Reference lists of included papers were reviewed and key authors in the field contacted to ascertain whether other papers were available. Twelve studies which met our eligibility criteria were included for review. Tentative support was found for a relationship between maternal childhood emotionally abusive/neglectful experiences and a range of adverse parenting outcomes, including increased parenting stress and maltreatment potential, lower empathy and greater psychological control. However, limitations within the research (e.g. small sample sizes, retrospective designs) reduce the confidence with which we can draw firm conclusions. Recommendations are offered for future research together with an outline of clinical implications arising from this review. Key Practitioner messages: There is tentative evidence that maternal childhood experience of emotional abuse/neglect may be associated with subsequent deficits in parenting. Maternal childhood experiences of being parented should be considered when attempting to make sense of children's difficulties and/or problems in the parentchild relationship. 2 Further research is required to explore these relationships and to build on our knowledge about contextual risk and protective factors.

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Various conceptualisations of identity development emphasise the internal world of adolescents while others place more emphasis on the social world. Previous findings highlight the impact of stigmatisation and how this may hinder positive identity development in adolescents in foster care; the significance of peer interactions has also been underlined. Anecdotal evidence suggests that young people in care do not want to be made to feel different from others but there appears to be an absence of empirical research confirming this. Interviews were carried out with nine 12-16-year-olds currently residing in foster care to explore their representations of 'feeling the same or feeling different'. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) guided how data were analysed and super-ordinate themes were identified. This article reports on one of these themes: difference. This is explored through four subordinate themes that relate to participants not wanting others to know they were in care, feeling alienated due to their foster care status, perceiving that others viewed them differently and, at times, noticing differences themselves. The dynamic nature of these experiences is emphasised and the findings are considered in relation to the extant literature. Practice and research implications are discussed.