The importance of early relationships is central to the field of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH), yet the role of fathers has too often been overlooked or relegated to the margins. This special issue seeks to reframe and elevate fatherhood by centering father’s voices, experiences, and contributions as integral partners in shaping early relational health and child development.
We invite submissions that expand the lens of IECMH to include fathers as essential in nurturing attachment, resilience, and healing. We seek work that illuminates the unique ways fathers strengthen the parent–child relationship and how fatherhood itself can be a powerful pathway for healing, both for the child and for fathers who carry their own histories of adversity.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Cultural Perspectives: Fatherhood across diverse cultures and communities
- Adversity and Healing: Fathers with histories of ACEs and trauma, and the pathways to resilience that emerge through parenting
- Navigating Systems: Fathers’ experiences with racism, immigration, and poverty, and their impact on family wellbeing
- Redefining Masculinity: Shifting narratives to include nurturing, caregiving, and relational leadership
- Strengthening Relationships: Fathers’ roles in deepening the parent–child bond, co-parenting, and intergenerational healing
- Fathers as Partners in Healing: The power of a father’s presence in child resilience and family restoration
- Innovative Practice & Policy: Models, interventions, and policies that effectively engage fathers in IECMH
By bringing these perspectives together, this special issue aims to challenge assumptions, amplify underrepresented voices, and provide a framework for practice, research, and policy that recognizes fathers as integral to early relational health and to the wellbeing of young children and families.
Submission Deadline
1 May 2026
Submission Categories
- Research Papers (max 3000 words, including references)
- Clinical Papers (max 3000 words, including references)
- Professional Development (max 3000 words, including references)
- Ethics (max 3000 words, including references)
- Community Voices (max 800 words, including references)
- Letters (max 800 words, including references)
- Opinion pieces/Policy/Advocacy (max 1000 words, including references)
- Book Review (max 800 words, including references)
Submission Guidelines
APA 7th Edition.
12-point font.
1.5 or double-spaced.
All in-text citations, references, tables, and figures to be in APA 7th Edition format.
Papers with tables and figures: Please submit the paper as a Word-format document with separate files attached for each table and/or figure.
We welcome photos of babies and families. All photos need to be sent as a separate file with a resolution of at least 72 pixels/inch. All photos need to include:
- A permission statement from the author/s for WAIMH to publish the photo in Perspectives and on all WAIMH printed and online platforms.
- A photo credit (if known).
All research papers must contain the Ethics Approval Reference Number and Ethics Approval Body Name.
Contact
To inquire about Perspectives in Infant Mental Health or to submit articles, please contact:
Jane Barlow (DPhil, FFPH Hon) (Editor-in-Chief)
Email: perspectives@waimh.org
