3-020 - Disentangling the Construct of Emotional Availability – Distinct Maternal Characteristics as Predictors of EA

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The construct of maternal emotional availability (EA; Biringen, 2008; Biringen & Robinson, 1991) has been developed for measuring the quality of mother-child interaction from infancy to late childhood (cf. Biringen et al., 2014 for a review). EA is conceptualized as dyadic construct, which means that maternal and child EA strongly depend on one another, and the individual dimensions of EA are always coded from the interaction partner’s perspective (Biringen, 2008). Research over the past 20 years indicates that maternal EA is a crucial predictor of healthy child development (e.g., Biringen et al., 2000; Easterbrooks et al., 2012; Licata et al., 2014). Thus, it is important to figure out which factors promote high EA.
The present symposium explores which maternal characteristics affect maternal EA, respectively dyadic patterns of EA. Two studies present different maternal characteristics, such as maternal psychopathology, maternal attachment security, maternal Theory of Mind and emotion understanding as potential predictors of maternal EA. In another study, dyadic patterns of EA are analyzed and related with maternal characteristics, such as childhood history and parenting attitudes and behaviors.
The results of the three studies shed more light on the construct of EA with regard to factors that promote or hinder high EA, and give important implications for intervention.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Maria Licata, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München

Discussant

• Zeynep Biringen, Colorado State Univ

Individual Presentations

• Emotional Availabiliy and its Connection to Emotion Recognition and Obesity - Presenting Author: Sarah Bergmann, Universität Leipzig; Verena Wendt, Universitätsmedizin Leipzig, Liebigstraße 20a, 04103 Leipzig; Kai von Klitzing, University of Leipzig; Annette M Klein, University of Leipzig

• Correlates of Maternal Emotional Availability: the Role of Maternal Psychopathology, Attachment, Education, and Theory of Mind - Presenting Author: Maria Licata, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München; Anna-Lena Zietlow, Klinik für Allgemeine Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Voßstraße 2, 69115 Heidelberg; Birgit Traeuble, Heidelberg College; Beate Sodian, Universtat Muenchen; Corinna Reck, Ludwig-Maximilan-University, Leopoldstr. 13, 80802 München

• Patterns of Emotional Availability in Mother-Infant Dyads: Associations with Maternal History and Parenting Characteristics - Presenting Author: M. Verónica Veronica Mingo, Tufts Univ; Ann Easterbrooks, Tufts University