Publication year
2012
Citation Title
Developmental correlates and predictors of emotional availability in mother_child interaction: A longitudinal study from infancy to middle childhood
Journal Name
Development and Psychopathology
Journal Volume
24
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
65-78
DOI
10.1017/S0954579411000666
Summary
Maternal emotional availability (i.e., nonhostility, sensitivity, and nonintrusiveness) is important for children's functioning. Mothers and children were observed and tested in infancy and middle childhood to assess maternal interactive behaviors and child outcomes. Results revealed an association between maternal emotional availability and children's functioning, and a continuity of mother-child interaction from infancy to middle childhood.
Key Findings
More maternal emotional availability was associated with less children’s controlling and disorganized attachment behaviors in middle childhood.
A greater level of maternal emotional availability was also associated with fewer behavioral problems in school, and fewer depressive symptoms in middle childhood.
Maternal emotional availability in middle childhood was predicted by early mother-infant interaction.
Implications for Military Professionals
Educate new parents on the importance of early parent-infant relationship to children’s functioning
Work closely with military families and offer them support on how to deal with children’s problem behaviors
Implications for Program Leaders
Reach out to military families and investigate if they have any concerns about parenting
Develop workshops for military parents to foster secure parent-child attachment in military families
Implications for Policy Makers
Raise awareness of the importance of parental emotional availability on military children’s development
Continue to support programs that improve the parenting skills of military parents
Methods
Participants were referred by health or social service agencies because of concerns about the quality of parental care, or recruited from the community.
Families were assessed twice: in infancy and in middle childhood; 43 of the initial 76 families completed the second assessment.
Assessments were conducted at home and in the laboratory through questionnaires and observations, and the assessments included mothers’ emotion availability, children’s attachment behavior and behavioral problems, quality of mother-child interaction, and mother and child’s depressive symptoms.
Participants
Participants were 43 mother-child dyads (19 of the children were girls) with low family income.
The mother-child dyads were seen in infancy (12-18 months of age) and in middle childhood (7-8 years of age); the average age of the children when they were first seen was not provided in the article.
Most (80%) of the children were White, and 51% of the mothers were single parents.
Limitations
Families that did not participate in the seven-year follow-up were among the most vulnerable ones in infancy (i.e., had been referred for mother-infant interaction problems), therefore the results may not represent the entire sample.
All participants were at psychosocial risk (i.e., poor mother-infant connection) and were low-income, so the results may be hard to generalize to the general population.
The causality of the relationship between maternal emotional availability and middle childhood outcomes is not clear because of the design of the study.
Avenues for Future Research
Examine the effects of both paternal and maternal emotional availability on children’s functioning
Increase the retention rate of the participants so that more vulnerable families could stay in the study
Increase the diversity of the participants in terms of socioeconomic status so that the results are more representative of the general population
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
In this investigation we examined the developmental correlates and predictors of maternal emotional availability in interactions with their 7-year-old children among a sample of families at psychosocial risk. We found developmental coherence in maternal interactive behavior, and in the relations between maternal emotional availability and children’s functioning in middle childhood. Mothers and children were observed at home and in a laboratory playroom in infancy to assess maternal interactive behavior and child attachment security. When children were 7 years of age, dyads were observed in the lab, maternal emotional availability was coded using the Emotional Availability Scales, and children’s disorganized and controlling attachment behavior was assessed. Classroom teachers reported on children’s behavior problems, at age 8, children reported on their depressive symptoms. Results showed that aspects of maternal emotional availability (sensitivity, nonhostility, nonintrusiveness [passive/withdrawn behavior]) were associated with children’s functioning in middle childhood: (a) controlling and disorganized attachment behavior, (b) behavior problems in school, and (c) self-reported depressive symptoms. Maternal emotional availability in childhood was predicted by early mother_infant relationship dysfunction (maternal hostility, disrupted communication, and infant attachment insecurity).
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