Patterns of emotional availability between mothers and young children: Associations with risk factors for borderline personality disorder

Emotional availability (EA) characterizes a warm, close relationship between caregiver and child. We compared patterns (clusters) of EA on risk factors, including those for borderline personality disorder (BPD). We sampled 70 children aged 4 to 7 years from low socio‐economic backgrounds: 51% of whose mothers had BPD. We coded filmed interactions for EA: mothers' sensitivity, structuring, non‐intrusiveness, non‐hostility, and children's responsiveness to, and involvement of, mothers. We additionally coded children's over‐responsiveness and over‐involvement. Using person‐centred analyses, we identified four clusters: high functioning, low functioning, asynchronous (mothers above average on two of four dimensions and children below), and below average. Mothers in the low‐functioning cluster had lower income, less social support, more of the borderline feature of negative relationships, and more depression than did mothers in the high‐functioning cluster. The children in the low‐functioning group had more risk factors for BPD (physical abuse, neglect, and separation from, or loss of caregivers, and negative narrative representations of the mother–child relationship in their stories) than did children in the high‐functioning group. The asynchronous group included older girls who were over‐responsive and over‐involving with their mothers in an apparent role reversal. Interventions targeting emotional availability may provide a buffer for children facing cumulative risks and help prevent psychopathology.

Highlights

• This paper investigated how mother‐child emotional availability (warmth and closeness) relates to risk factors for borderline personality disorder, including mother‐child role reversal.
• In filmed mother‐child interactions, low emotional availability was associated with risk for borderline personality disorder and role reversal was more likely for older girls.
• Findings support the cumulative risk hypothesis and may inform interventions to improve mother‐child emotional availability to prevent the development of psychopathology.

     

Increasing pretend toy play of toddlers with disabilities in an inclusive setting

We evaluated a program for increasing pretend toy play of 2-year-old children with disabilities in an inclusive classroom. Classroom personnel implemented the program, which involved choices of classroom centers containing toys that tend to occasion pretend play in toddlers without disabilities, along with prompting and praise. Increases occurred in independent pretend-play rates among all 5 participating toddlers. Results are discussed regarding the importance of promoting toy play of very young children with disabilities that is similar to the type of play of their nondisabled peers, and the need to identify critical program components that are applicable in inclusive settings. DESCRIPTORS: pretend play, young children with disabilities     

Young children's television viewing and the quality of their interactions with parents: A prospective community study

Television is one of the most commonly viewed forms of media by children throughout the world. Excessive television viewing can influence the quality of children's relationships and interactions with their parents. We examined the emotional availability (EA ) of children toward their parents by assessing child responsiveness and child involvement , using a cross‐sectional and longitudinal design. We employed a large and representative community sample of Norwegian 4‐year‐olds (n = 995) who were followed up at 6 years old (n = 795). The results illustrate that, when viewing excessive amounts of television, children are less likely to be involved with their parents in ordinary toy‐play. We argue in favor of the displacement hypothesis, stating that time‐demanding technologies are negatively related to the quality of parent–child relationships because spending more time watching television will leave less time for developing nurturing social relationships.     

Developmental outcomes of toddlers of young Latina mothers: Cultural,family, and parenting factors

Children of adolescent mothers are at risk for poor developmental outcomes. This study is among the first to examine how cultural, family, and parenting factors prospectively predict the cognitive and language development of children of young Latina mothers (N = 170; M_age = 17.9 years). Mothers were interviewed and observed interacting with their children at 18 months (W1). Children were tested at 18 (W1) and 24 (W2) months. Mothers’ cultural orientation (W1) was related to aspects of the childrearing environment (W1), which in turn had implications for the children's development (W2). Specifically, a stronger orientation toward American culture was related to higher mother-reported engagement in parenting by their own mothers (grandmothers), which in turn predicted stronger gains in cognitive and expressive language functioning from W1 to W2. A stronger Latino orientation related to the display of more directiveness and greater mother-reported engagement by the children's biological fathers; directiveness, in turn, predicted fewer gains in cognitive functioning only when father engagement was low and did not predict expressive language development. Finally, mothers’ display of more positive affect, a stronger American orientation, and higher grandmother engagement uniquely predicted gains in W2 expressive language functioning. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Predictors of Child Maltreatment Potential in a National Sample of Mothers of Young Children

Although previous studies have furthered our broad ability to predict child maltreatment potential, young children remain at the highest risk for experiencing maltreatment. Thus, several variables of relevance for this population were examined. A national community sample of 158 mothers with young children between ages 1.5 and 5 years rated their young children’s temperament as well as their own temperament, emotion regulation, stress, coping, and child maltreatment potential. Young children’s mood quality as well as mothers’ mood quality, flexibility/rigidity, emotion dysregulation, parenting stress, cumulated severity of stress, and emotion-focused coping added unique incremental variance to the prediction of child maltreatment potential, accounting for 67% of the variance overall. Further, mothers’ emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between mothers’ flexibility/rigidity and child maltreatment potential. Consequently, emotion regulation skills represent an important point of intervention for mothers of young children who are at increased risk for child maltreatment due to difficult temperament characteristics.     

State emotional clarity and attention to emotion: a naturalistic examination of their associations with each other,affect, and context

ABSTRACT

Despite emotional clarity and attention to emotion being dynamic in nature, research has largely focused on their trait forms. We examined the association between state and trait forms of these two constructs, and how they are related to affect intensity and two contextual variables: Social context and significant event occurrence. Seventy-nine adults recruited from the community reported eight times a day for a week on the extent to which they were clear about their emotions, attended to their emotions, levels of affect intensity, the number of people with whom they were interacting, and whether a significant event had occurred. State clarity and attention were positively associated, demonstrating a moderate relation similar to that of their trait forms. Trait and state attention, but not trait and state clarity, were significantly positively associated. Positive and negative affect were quadratically associated with clarity and attention, with the highest levels of affect intensity reported at high levels of clarity and attention. Clarity and attention were positively associated with increasing numbers of people with whom people were interacting. Attention and clarity were elevated when significant events occurred – especially during positive events. We discuss the findings in the context of functional adaptation theories of emotion.     

Dyadic synchrony among young Latina mothers and their toddlers: The role of maternal and child behavior

Synchronous interactions are an important indicator of parent-child relationship quality with positive implications for child development. Latina adolescent mothers face several demographic challenges that place them at risk for less synchronous interactions. To identify factors that may facilitate more optimal parent-child relationships in this population, our study examined maternal sensitivity and children’s behavioral styles as joint predictors of dyadic synchrony among young Latina mothers and their toddlers. Mother-toddler dyads (N = 170) were observed interacting across different tasks, and toddlers’ behavior was observed during the administration of a developmental test. Results of multivariate regressions revealed additive effects of maternal sensitivity and child behavioral styles (i.e., dysregulation and positive attentional control). Maternal sensitivity related to higher dyadic synchrony for the entire sample. Positive attentional control was related to higher dyadic synchrony for mother-daughter dyads only. Although no gender differences in dyadic synchrony or the behavior style variables emerged, the relative contribution of maternal and child factors differed by child gender, suggesting that mothers may have responded differently to similar behavior and affect displayed by boys and girls. The findings provide insights regarding factors that contribute to dyadic synchrony in this understudied population and emphasize the need to consider child gender when studying parent-child interactions in young Latina families.     

Attention bias to threat in mothers with emotional disorders predicts increased offspring anxiety symptoms: a joint cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

There is convincing evidence of the transmission of anxiety and depression from parents to children; however, mechanisms by which this vulnerability is passed on are unclear. Cognitive models and a small body of cross-sectional research suggest that parental attention biases (ABs) may be one mechanism involved in transmission. Longitudinal associations of maternal and offspring ABs with offspring symptoms have been scarcely studied. Forty-three mothers–child dyads were included. All children (7–12 years old) were diagnosis-free while 24 mothers had a lifetime emotional disorder (anxiety or depression) (high risk, HR) and 19 mothers had no psychiatric diagnoses (low risk, LR). This study examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of maternal and child AB and child anxiety symptomology at initial and 12-month assessments. ABs were assessed using a visual-probe task with emotional faces. There was a significant cross-sectional but not longitudinal association of increased child anxiety symptoms with increased maternal threat AB for HR but not LR dyads. At the cross-sectional level, increases in HR but not LR offspring anxiety symptomology were associated with maternal threat AB. Larger longitudinal studies are required that examine the interplay between parent–child variables and include multiple time-points of assessment and measures of AB.     

Parent–child interactions during traditional and interactive media settings: A pilot randomized control study

Parent–child interactions are pivotal for children's socioemotional development, yet might suffer with increased attention to screen media, as research has suggested. In response, we hypothesized that parent–child play on a tablet computer, as representative of interactive media, would generate higher‐quality parent–child interactions than toy play or watching TV . We examined the emotional availability of mothers and their 2‐year‐old child during the previous three contexts using a randomized crossover design (n = 22) in a laboratory room. Among other results, mothers were more sensitive and structuring during joint gaming on a tablet than when engaged in toy play or watching TV . In addition, mothers were more hostile toward their children during play with traditional toys than during joint tablet gaming and television co‐viewing. Such findings provide new insights into the impact of new media on parent–child interactions, chiefly by demonstrating that interactive media devices such as tablets can afford growth‐enhancing parent–child interactions.     

That's a boy's toy: gender-typed knowledge in toddlers as a function of mother's marital status

A child who is highly gender schematic readily uses gender when processing new information. In the current study, we examined whether and how family structure predicts a child's level of gender-typed knowledge (as assessed by a gender-stereotype sorting task) once the category of gender is in place (as assessed by a gender-labeling task). It was predicted that children from more "traditional" family structures (married mothers) would have more gender-typed knowledge compared to children from less traditional families (unmarried mothers). Moreover, we explored if this relationship would be related to, at least in part, the greater frequency of androgynous behaviors (i.e., both masculine and feminine household activities) an unmarried mother performs. Twenty-eight children (age 2 to 3) were tested at local childcare centers. The mother of each child reported her marital status as well as how often she engaged in stereotypically masculine and feminine behaviors. As expected, mothers' marital status was associated with children's level of gender-typed knowledge, such that children with unmarried mothers had less gender-typed knowledge, in part due to the unmarried mother's greater frequency of androgynous behaviors. Implications for children's acquisition of gender-related stereotypes and the possible benefit of having mothers model both masculine and feminine behaviors are discussed.     

Association between Hyperemesis Gravidarum in pregnancy on postnatal ability of infants to attend to a play task with their mother

Research indicates a higher prevalence of attention deficits in children exposed to HG in utero compared to controls with some claiming that the deficit is due to prenatal effects of malnutrition in HG mothers and others that it is due to maternal mental health after birth. The current study examines the effect of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) diagnosis during pregnancy on infant attention controlling for maternal stress, depression anxiety and attachment. Thirty-eight infants mean age 4 months were videotaped with their mothers (19 mothers with a hyperemesis diagnosis and 19 controls) during play with a soft toy and looking at a picture book. Infant attention was operationalized as gaze direction towards the play activity, mother, and ‘distracted’ (indicated by looking away from play or mother). Mothers completed stress, depression, anxiety, and attachment questionnaires. HG exposed infants attended for significantly less time during play with a book or soft toy compared to controls. Maternal stress, depression, anxiety, and attachment did not differ in HG mothers and controls. Infant ability to attend to the toy, book, mother or being distracted did not relate to maternal postnatal attachment, or mental health. These results suggest that the prenatal environment, especially exposure to HG might be associated with reduced infant attention abilities independent of maternal postnatal health.     

Behavioral variability in SHR and WKY rats as a function of rearing environment and reinforcement contingency.

The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) may model aspects of human attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For example, just as responses by children with ADHD tend to be variable, so too SHRs often respond more variably than do Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) control rats. The present study asked whether behavioral variability in the SHR strain is influenced by rearing environment, a question related to hypotheses concerning the etiology of human ADHD. Some rats from each strain were reared in an enriched environment (housed socially), and others were reared in an impoverished environment (housed in isolation). Four groups--enriched SHR, impoverished SHR, enriched WKY, and impoverished WKY--were studied under two reinforcement contingencies, one in which reinforcement was independent of response variability and the other in which reinforcement depended upon high variability. The main finding was that rearing environment did not influence response variability (enriched and impoverished subjects responded similarly throughout). However, rearing environment affected body weight (enriched subjects weighted more than impoverished subjects) and response rate (impoverished subjects generally responded faster than enriched subjects). In addition, SHRs tended to respond variably throughout the experiment, whereas WKYs were more sensitive to the variability contingencies. Thus, behavioral variability was affected by genetic strain and by reinforcement contingency but not by the environment in which the subjects were reared.     

幼儿自我调控的中日比较

实验以中日77名大班幼儿为被试(其中中国幼儿40名,日本幼儿37名).在实验中,根据幼儿园的日常生活,设置幼儿与同伴间矛盾场面(抑制场面和主张场面)的测试问题,采用逐张呈现图片并一对一询问的方式进行实验.根据幼儿在测试问题上的情绪反应与行为反应数据,比较中日幼儿自我调控的特征,结果表明:(1)在与同伴间的矛盾场面中,中国幼儿发生情绪反应的人数比率显著小于日本幼儿;(2)在表现出情绪反应的幼儿中,不论在抑制场面还是在主张场面,日本幼儿都比中国幼儿有更多的"自我抑制"或"自我抑制"倾向,而中国幼儿比日本幼儿出现了更多的"依赖教师"和"冲动行为"倾向;(3)中国幼儿的行为反应因情绪反应强度的变化表现出了差异,而日本幼儿的行为反应没有随着情绪反应强度的不同表现出差异.     

Child care before 6 months of age: a qualitative study of mothers' decisions and feelings about employment and non‐maternal care

Employment of women while their children are infants has increased in the UK in the last decade. This study of 57 employed mothers of infants less than seven months old examined their retrospective reports of planning child care and their contemporaneous feelings about the child care they were using, based on qualitative interviews. Issues addressed included mothers' reasons for returning to employment at that time, their theoretical preferences among a range of child care types and providers and the process of making actual choices, including the range and types of advice received and the involvement of fathers. Mothers were also encouraged to discuss their feelings about how child care was working out once the infant was settled. Continuing concerns expressed by mothers included the importance of open communication with caregivers, their desire to keep control over infants' daily lives and upbringing, worries about infants' safety and concerns about the levels of cognitive stimulation they received. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gaze cueing as a function of perceived gaze direction

Previous studies have found that attention is automatically oriented in the direction of other people's gaze. This study directly investigated whether the perceiving gaze direction modulates the orienting of observers' attention. Gaze perception was manipulated by changing the face context (head orientation) of the gaze cue: the perceived gaze angle was increased (or decreased) when the head and gaze are congruent (or incongruent), while the local‐feature information of the eye region was preserved for all stimuli. The results showed that gaze‐cueing effects were enhanced when the perceived gaze direction was averted more toward left or right, and reduced when the perceived gaze direction was closer to direct gaze. The results suggest that gaze‐cueing effects are based on mechanisms specialized for gaze perception, and the magnitude of gaze‐cueing effects was probably a function of the perceived gaze direction.     

Affective and effective: Military job performance as a function of work‐related emotional intelligence

The military is a highly stressful career that requires one to work closely with others. These features of the military render it plausible that skills related to emotional perception and management—or emotional intelligence—would tend to benefit performance within this setting. Hypotheses of this type were examined in a panel study that presented 152 active duty military personnel with a new scenario‐based measure that specifically focused on emotional occurrences within the workplace. As hypothesized, work‐related emotional intelligence (W‐EI) positively predicted task performance, discipline, organizational citizenship, and employees with higher W‐EI levels received a greater number of performance commendations. Additionally, these relationships tended to remain significant in discriminant multiple regressions. Altogether, the results provide important evidence for the benefits of W‐EI within an occupational context that requires a high degree of coordination as well as stress management.