Cite This Work
Maternal Development publishes an original theoretical architecture. If you reference the field, its definition, its models, or its frameworks in scholarship, teaching, journalism, or practice, this page tells you how to attribute that work. Citing a website is ordinary scholarly practice for working definitions and pre-print theoretical material; this page exists so the citation object is as identifiable as the ideas.
Citing Maternal Development
For the field definition and overall disciplinary architecture of Maternal Development — the definition, disciplinary positioning, domain architecture, lifespan orientation, relationship to matrescence, original-framework ecosystem, and research agenda — please cite the First Edition of Foundations of Maternal Development: A Field Brief, the fixed citable introduction to the field.
Foundations of Maternal Development: A Field Brief
Author: Jamilia Shani · Edition: First Edition · Year: 2026 · Publication home: MaternalDevelopment.org · 18 pages · Free
Suggested citation
Shani, J. (2026). Foundations of Maternal Development: A Field Brief (1st ed.). Maternal Development.
First Edition — 2026. Current foundational edition. Future substantial revisions will be published as numbered editions with their own dates and files; the First Edition remains permanently available at its own address, so the exact edition cited stays accessible.
Founder-created artifacts
For reference to a specific original artifact, cite the artifact directly.
The Field Definition
First published: August 23, 2026 · Current version: 1.0 · Author: Jamilia Shani
Suggested citation
Shani, J. (2026). The definition of Maternal Development (Version 1.0). Maternal Development. https://maternaldevelopment.org/what-is-maternal-development/
The Fifteen-Domain Field Map
First published: August 23, 2026 · Current version: 1.0 · Author: Jamilia Shani
Suggested citation
Shani, J. (2026). The fifteen domains of Maternal Development (Version 1.0). Maternal Development. https://maternaldevelopment.org/domains/
The Lifespan Model
First published: August 23, 2026 · Current version: 1.0 · Author: Jamilia Shani
Suggested citation
Shani, J. (2026). Maternal development across the lifespan: an eighteen-stage developmental model (Version 1.0). Maternal Development. https://maternaldevelopment.org/across-the-lifespan/
The Matrescent Path™
First published: August 23, 2026 · Current version: 1.0 · Author: Jamilia Shani
Suggested citation
Shani, J. (2026). The Matrescent Path™: A six-stage theoretical model of maternal development (Version 1.0). Maternal Development. https://maternaldevelopment.org/frameworks/the-matrescent-path/
The Matrescent Brain™ (Motherbrain)
First published: August 23, 2026 · Current version: 1.0 · Author: Jamilia Shani
Suggested citation
Shani, J. (2026). The Matrescent Brain™ (Motherbrain): A theoretical framework for maternal cognitive and psychological reorganization (Version 1.0). Maternal Development. https://maternaldevelopment.org/frameworks/the-matrescent-brain/
The Research Agenda
First published: August 23, 2026 · Current version: 1.0 · Author: Jamilia Shani
Suggested citation
Shani, J. (2026). The Maternal Development research agenda (Version 1.0). Maternal Development. https://maternaldevelopment.org/research-agenda/
These artifacts are published here as version 1.0, first published August 23, 2026. If a page evolves, its version number will change and this page will record it, so a citation of version 1.0 stays meaningful. The website is the evolving public infrastructure of the field; Foundations of Maternal Development: A Field Brief (First Edition, 2026) is the fixed citable publication and does not change when the website does. The individual frameworks are their own theoretical objects with their own citations above — the three levels are deliberately distinct. Deposit of the First Edition with a service that provides a persistent identifier (DOI) is planned; when it exists, the DOI will join the preferred citation. Until then, the stable publication URL above and archived captures of this site (for example via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine) serve as the objects of record.
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