Parent-Infant Relational Health in a Disaster-Affected Region: A Qualitative Examination of Lived Experience and...

Background/Objectives: The family constitutes a primary ecological system shaping infant emotional and mental health. Parent responsiveness in particular shapes early regulatory capacities in the developing child. Added contextual stress such as that associated with natural disasters may strain caregiving relationships. Brief, universally accessible parenting interventions offer scalable support for strengthening early relational health and may be useful in contexts of natural disaster-related stress as well as in the general population. This qualitative study examined the perceived impact and contextual relevance of MERTIL (My Early Relational Trust-Informed Learning) for Parents, a brief digital psychoeducational parenting program targeting early relational health, among families raising young children in disaster-affected communities. Methods: Fourteen parents residing in the Hunter New England and Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, with young children aged 0-5 years, participated in semi-structured interviews conducted approximately 6 months after completing MERTIL for Parents. Interviews explored lived experiences of parenting in the context of natural disaster (analysed via applied phenomenological methods) and parents' perceptions of program components that supported everyday caregiving (analysed via reflexive thematic analysis and content analysis). Results: Parents described interconnected personal, relational, and environmental stressors that influenced aspects of the parent-infant relationship. Key retained knowledge from the program included a normalisation of parenting challenges, a strengthened understanding of attachment, trust, safety and repair, and attuned, emotion-focused parenting practices. Conclusions: This pilot study illuminates the lived experience of parenting in disaster prone regions and highlights the potential for this brief, universal digital parenting program to provide support for early relational health in such contexts.