The relationship between maternal psychopathology and infant development

This thesis describes an investigation into the effect of maternal psychopathology on infants' mental and psychomotor development. Part one systematically reviews the literature, which considers the effect of maternal psychopathology on infants' mental and psychomotor development in the first two years of life. It concludes that this relationship is likely to be mediated by other variables and future research should explore this relationship further. Part two is an empirical paper that describes an investigation of the relationship between maternal psychopathology and infants' mental and psychomotor development and the potential mediating variables of socioeconomic factors and maternal Emotional Availability. This thesis was linked to Wain's (2010) research and built on the work of Gale (2009). Part three is a critical appraisal that discusses methodological issues and personal reflections on conducting the research