{"id":{"repo_id":"essex","oai_identifier":"oai:repository.essex.ac.uk:28546"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/essex/oai:repository.essex.ac.uk:28546","repository":{"repo_id":"essex","name":"University of Essex","base_url":"https://repository.essex.ac.uk/cgi/oai2"},"display":{"title":"A qualitative exploration of who the infant is in the mothers’ mind.","abstract":"Objective: This study is the first qualitative research analysing mothers’ thoughts and feelings of themselves, their infant and their developing parent-infant relationship prior to receiving a brief psychoanalytically informed under-fives treatment. It explores maternal representations from mothers’ narratives asking the question: Who is the infant in the mothers’ mind? Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six mothers whose infant had been referred to an under-fives service. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The qualitative analysis of these narrative accounts generated eleven super-ordinate themes. These clustered into four areas: mother’s descriptions of their infant, descriptions of problems in themselves as a mother, problems in their infant and problems in the developing parent-infant relationship. Conclusions: There were coherent, rich, balanced representations involving mental representations of emotions and intentions in all six mothers. They all conveyed viewing their infant as a unique, growing person with a separate mind and at times separate feelings. They each showed a marked capacity for maternal reflectiveness incorporating mentalization. There were high levels of worry in all six narratives.","abstract_html":"Objective: This study is the first qualitative research analysing mothers’ thoughts and feelings of themselves, their infant and their developing parent-infant relationship prior to receiving a brief psychoanalytically informed under-fives treatment. It explores maternal representations from mothers’ narratives asking the question: Who is the infant in the mothers’ mind? Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six mothers whose infant had been referred to an under-fives service. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The qualitative analysis of these narrative accounts generated eleven super-ordinate themes. These clustered into four areas: mother’s descriptions of their infant, descriptions of problems in themselves as a mother, problems in their infant and problems in the developing parent-infant relationship. Conclusions: There were coherent, rich, balanced representations involving mental representations of emotions and intentions in all six mothers. They all conveyed viewing their infant as a unique, growing person with a separate mind and at times separate feelings. They each showed a marked capacity for maternal reflectiveness incorporating mentalization. There were high levels of worry in all six narratives.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lowe, Jane"],"institution":"University of Essex & Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust","degree_name":null,"degree_level":"other","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-08","date_published":"2020-08","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:18:37Z","subjects":[],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lowe, Jane"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-08-19"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2020-08"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Essex & Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["https://repository.essex.ac.uk/28546/"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["other"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://repository.essex.ac.uk/28546/1/Lowe%2C%20Jane%20%282020%29%20A%20qualitative%20exploration%20of%20who%20the%20infant%20is%20in%20the%20mothers%E2%80%99%20mind.%20Other%20thesis%2C%20University%20of%20Essex.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Objective: This study is the first qualitative research analysing mothers’ thoughts and feelings of themselves, their infant and their developing parent-infant relationship prior to receiving a brief psychoanalytically informed under-fives treatment. It explores maternal representations from mothers’ narratives asking the question: Who is the infant in the mothers’ mind? Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six mothers whose infant had been referred to an under-fives service. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The qualitative analysis of these narrative accounts generated eleven super-ordinate themes. These clustered into four areas: mother’s descriptions of their infant, descriptions of problems in themselves as a mother, problems in their infant and problems in the developing parent-infant relationship. Conclusions: There were coherent, rich, balanced representations involving mental representations of emotions and intentions in all six mothers. They all conveyed viewing their infant as a unique, growing person with a separate mind and at times separate feelings. They each showed a marked capacity for maternal reflectiveness incorporating mentalization. There were high levels of worry in all six narratives."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["text"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A qualitative exploration of who the infant is in the mothers’ mind."]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Lowe, Jane"],"dc:date":["2020-08-19"],"dc:date.issued":["2020-08"],"dc:description.abstract":["Objective: This study is the first qualitative research analysing mothers’ thoughts and feelings of themselves, their infant and their developing parent-infant relationship prior to receiving a brief psychoanalytically informed under-fives treatment. It explores maternal representations from mothers’ narratives asking the question: Who is the infant in the mothers’ mind? Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six mothers whose infant had been referred to an under-fives service. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The qualitative analysis of these narrative accounts generated eleven super-ordinate themes. These clustered into four areas: mother’s descriptions of their infant, descriptions of problems in themselves as a mother, problems in their infant and problems in the developing parent-infant relationship. Conclusions: There were coherent, rich, balanced representations involving mental representations of emotions and intentions in all six mothers. They all conveyed viewing their infant as a unique, growing person with a separate mind and at times separate feelings. They each showed a marked capacity for maternal reflectiveness incorporating mentalization. There were high levels of worry in all six narratives."],"dc:format":["text"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://repository.essex.ac.uk/28546/1/Lowe%2C%20Jane%20%282020%29%20A%20qualitative%20exploration%20of%20who%20the%20infant%20is%20in%20the%20mothers%E2%80%99%20mind.%20Other%20thesis%2C%20University%20of%20Essex.pdf"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Essex & Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby":["https://repository.essex.ac.uk/28546/"],"dc:title":["A qualitative exploration of who the infant is in the mothers’ mind."],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["other"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:18:37Z"}