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Infant Mental Health (IMH) is a concept developed by psychologists, psychiatrists, child development specialists, to describe preverbal children's emotional well-being. In everyday life, however, people may not be familiar with this idea, use these terms or think about infant well-being in the same...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Social Anthropology
2024
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| _version_ | 1867613344259637248 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mafela, Sedzani |
| author2 | Ross, Fiona |
| author_browse | Mafela, Sedzani Ross, Fiona |
| author_facet | Ross, Fiona Mafela, Sedzani |
| author_sort | Mafela, Sedzani |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Infant Mental Health (IMH) is a concept developed by psychologists, psychiatrists, child development specialists, to describe preverbal children's emotional well-being. In everyday life, however, people may not be familiar with this idea, use these terms or think about infant well-being in the same way. The research therefore posed the general question 'do infants have mental health?' to a range of participants, including parents, grandparents, and those who haven't had children. A decolonial feminist-queer approach was used. The research revealed that although people did not think of their children's well-being using the language of IMH, they had their ways of ensuring the 'mental health' of their infants. Secondly, mental health is often understood in terms of illness and not as wellness. Lastly, although infants were not thought to have 'mental health', the participants agreed on the presence of mental health in infants and used a variety of terms to describe this concept in their own words as opposed to the formal descriptions according to IMH paradigm. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39639 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:34:39.078Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | Social Anthropology |
| publisherStr | Social Anthropology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39639 An ‘anthropological' exploration of individuals' perceptions on Infant Mental Health in South Africa Mafela, Sedzani Ross, Fiona Social Anthropology Infant Mental Health (IMH) is a concept developed by psychologists, psychiatrists, child development specialists, to describe preverbal children's emotional well-being. In everyday life, however, people may not be familiar with this idea, use these terms or think about infant well-being in the same way. The research therefore posed the general question 'do infants have mental health?' to a range of participants, including parents, grandparents, and those who haven't had children. A decolonial feminist-queer approach was used. The research revealed that although people did not think of their children's well-being using the language of IMH, they had their ways of ensuring the 'mental health' of their infants. Secondly, mental health is often understood in terms of illness and not as wellness. Lastly, although infants were not thought to have 'mental health', the participants agreed on the presence of mental health in infants and used a variety of terms to describe this concept in their own words as opposed to the formal descriptions according to IMH paradigm. 2024-05-17T09:43:57Z 2024-05-17T09:43:57Z 2023 2024-05-17T07:04:07Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39639 eng application/pdf Social Anthropology Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Social Anthropology Mafela, Sedzani An ‘anthropological' exploration of individuals' perceptions on Infant Mental Health in South Africa |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | An ‘anthropological' exploration of individuals' perceptions on Infant Mental Health in South Africa |
| title_full | An ‘anthropological' exploration of individuals' perceptions on Infant Mental Health in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | An ‘anthropological' exploration of individuals' perceptions on Infant Mental Health in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | An ‘anthropological' exploration of individuals' perceptions on Infant Mental Health in South Africa |
| title_short | An ‘anthropological' exploration of individuals' perceptions on Infant Mental Health in South Africa |
| title_sort | anthropological exploration of individuals perceptions on infant mental health in south africa |
| topic | Social Anthropology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39639 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mafelasedzani ananthropologicalexplorationofindividualsperceptionsoninfantmentalhealthinsouthafrica AT mafelasedzani anthropologicalexplorationofindividualsperceptionsoninfantmentalhealthinsouthafrica |