InBrief: Early Childhood Mental Health
幼児期のメンタルヘルス

健康なメンタルヘルスの基礎は人生の早期に作られることがわかっています。親や養育者など周囲の人々との関係を含む人生早期の経験が、子供の持つ特性と関わり合いながら脳の構造を作っていきます。
この過程に問題があると、学習したり人間関係を作ったりする能力が障害され、その影響は生涯に及ぶこともあります。

Science tells us that the foundations of sound mental health are built early in life. Early experiences—including children’s relationships with parents, caregivers, relatives, teachers, and peers—interact with genes to shape the architecture of the developing brain. Disruptions in this developmental process can impair a child’s capacities for learning and relating to others, with lifelong implications.

This edition of the InBrief series, here in Japanese, explains how improving children’s environments of relationships and experiences early in life can prevent initial difficulties from destabilizing later development and mental health.
The 5-minute video provides an overview of Establishing a Level Foundation for Life: Mental Health Begins in Early Childhood, a working paper by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.