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Copyright of Infant Mental Health Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Summary: Background: While previous research indicates that low maternal sensitivity in mother‐child interactions puts children at risk of overweight and obesity, maternal intrusiveness has rarely been investigated in association with children's weight. We investigated whether maternal sensitivity and intrusiveness in early childhood predict children's increased body mass index standard deviation scores (BMI‐SDS) at school age. BMI‐SDS are standardized for age and gender with respect to a reference standard. Methods: At baseline (t1), we assessed maternal sensitivity and (non‐)intrusiveness of 116 mothers with their children (48.3% female) aged 5–47 months (M = 24.00, SD = 11.36) using the emotional availability scales. We obtained anthropometric data for mothers at t1 by measuring height and weight in the laboratory and for children at birth assessed by medical staff. Six years later (t2) we obtained anthropometric data for children in the laboratory or based on parental report. Linear regression analyses were run with child BMI‐SDS at t2 as outcome and sensitivity and (non‐)intrusiveness as predictors, adjusting for confounders and exploring child age and gender as moderators. Results: Maternal sensitivity only negatively predicted children's BMI‐SDS in girls, while maternal intrusiveness predicted higher child BMI‐SDS at school age regardless of child gender. The effect of maternal non‐intrusiveness remained significant when controlling for confounders. Conclusion: Maternal intrusiveness in early childhood seems to represent a risk factor for increased BMI‐SDS in children, while lower maternal sensitivity tends to be a risk factor for increased BMI‐SDS in girls. This may have implications for prevention or intervention programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Infant Mental Health Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Parental Substance Use Disorder (SUD) constitutes a high-risk condition for parent-child interactions and child development. Empirical evidence indicates high rates of psychopathology and neuropsychological impairments in individuals with SUD. Despite research indicating that parenting skills are related to psychological well-being and cognitive/neuropsychological functioning, prior studies have not examined the associations between these areas of parental functioning and the quality of parent-child interactions in the context of SUD. Aim(s). The present study adopts an integrated perspective to investigate the way in which maternal neuropsychological functioning and psychopathology are associated with mother-child emotional availability (EA), in the context of parental Substance Use Disorder. Methods. Twenty-nine mothers with SUD were assessed in interaction with their children, as well as with respect to their neuropsychological functioning and psychopathology. Results. In this group, high rates of maternal neuropsychological impairments and psychopathology, as well as generally low levels of EA, were uncovered. Regression analyses showed that maternal neuropsychological functioning was significantly associated with mother-child EA, specifically sensitivity; the role of maternal psychopathology, however, was only marginally significant. Conclusion. In the context of SUD, maternal neuropsychological impairments are significantly associated with mother-child EA. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the new online Emotional Attachment and Emotional Availability (EA2) Intervention for use with adoptive families in enhancing parent-child EA, parental perceptions of EA, child attachment behaviors, parent-child emotional attachment, and reducing parent-reported child behavioral problems and parenting-related stress. Participants in this study were adoptive parents and their adopted children ages 1.5 to 5 years old ( N = 15 dyads). Participants were placed in an immediate intervention group (IG) or a delayed intervention group (DG) that would receive the 6-week EA2 Tele-Intervention after the IG. Results revealed significant differences in the IG in child behavioral problems, parent-child EA, parental perceptions of EA, and parent-child emotional attachment, improvements not seen in the DG. Analysis of effects of the DG after receiving the EA2 Tele-Intervention revealed significant differences over time also in most of these qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the longitudinal relations of mother-child affect exchanges at 18 months with children's mastery motivation at 39 months. Observation and questionnaire data were collected from mother-child dyads when children were 18 months; 43 mothers again rated their children's mastery motivation at 39 months. Results suggested that after controlling for gender and the corresponding 18-month mastery aspect, positive affect exchanges had long-term positive relationships with children's persistence and competence, whereas dismissed affect exchanges had long-term negative relationships with children's persistence and independent mastery. Findings suggest that children's autonomous mastery-oriented endeavours have deep roots in their early mother-child affective interactions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Infant Mental Health Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Infant Mental Health Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Presents an introductory statement to the July 2005 issue of "Infant Mental Health Journal."

Two studies are used to illustrate the importance of context and length of time in the use of the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS) to predict aspects of child development. The purpose of the first study was to examine whether prediction of attachment by the EAS is better with increasing amounts of time. We scored emotional availability (EA) every 15 min for a total of 2 hr, with correlations showing an increasingly stronger relation with attachment with increasing time. In addition, difference scores were calculated between the first and the last 15 min for each EAS dimension. The difference score was significantly higher for the insecure group, suggesting that we need more observation time for the prediction of insecure attachments than is the case for the prediction of secure attachments. The second study investigated whether EA is differentially predictive based on context. We explored play contexts versus reunion contexts. We also explored the relations with other indices of child development. Results revealed that some dimensions of EA (e.g., maternal nonhostility) are difficult to detect outside of a stress context. Maternal nonhostility during the reunion (but not the play situation) was correlated with child aggression in the kindergarten classroom. In addition, most dimensions of EA assessed in the reunion context were better predictors of teacher reports of kindergarten adjustment than was EA assessed in the play situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we describe issues regarding emotional availability and its application to children with disabilities. We then apply this approach to the scoring of emotional availability for caregiver–child interactions of children with disabilities, with information based on children with genetic mental retardation syndromes, children with autism, and children with hearing impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a child psychiatric population, 68 mother–child pairs were observed, with children ranging in age from 6 weeks to 3 years 10 months. The children were diagnosed using the Zero to Three DC 0–3 guidelines (Zero-to-Three, 1998). Each dyad also was rated in terms of the intensity of recommended therapeutic measures upon intake at our clinic. Following videotaping of parent–child interactions, the dyads were rated for emotional availability using the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS; Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1998). The group with feeding disorders showed the lowest EAS ratings. The group with regulation disorders (sleeping and crying disorders) had the highest ratings followed by the group with externalizing disorders (motor disorganized and/or aggressive behavior) and attachment disorders. Further, the lower the EAS ratings, the higher the intensity of recommended treatments for the family. These findings indicate the importance of standardized observing of parent–child interactions in infant psychiatric disorders. Some clinical impressions regarding the work with the EAS also are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors offer a criticism on Richard Warshak's blanket restrictions on overnight contact between parents and young children during custody arrangements. They agree on Warshak's attachment theory of the importance of fathers and caregivers in the young children's life. The authors disagrees on Warshak's erroneous review of empirical literature such as the 1987 study by the team of E. Tronick, the 1983 M. E. Lamb study and the 1999 J. Solomon and C. George's study on overnights with other caregivers.

The authors discuss the attachment literature and guidelines for proper custody of children with separated or divorced parents, as suggested by J. B. Kelly and M. E. Lamb. The authors say that the guidelines may lead to various misunderstandings associated to the needs of a young child which could evoke interparental conflict and incapability in decision making. They also suggest that further research is needed before such guidelines become a social policy.

In the course of dally transactions, caregivers and children construct internal working models of self and other in the attachment relationship (Bowlby, 1969). The function of such working models is to guide an individual's own behavior toward the attachment panner and to interpret and forecast the partner's behavior. So far, however, research on internal working models has largely focused on attachment from the filial rather than the parental perspective even when adults were studied. To remedy this situation. 36 middle-class mothers were interviewed regarding their attachment relationship with their 25-month-old children. Attachment-relevant interview questions were open-ended, allowing the mothers to produce their own descriptive categories. The interview took about an hour. Two analyses were performed on the interview transcripts: a content analysis of specific attachment themes and a global evaluation of attachment quality as conveyed by the interview text as a whole. The content analysis provided interesting findings regarding mother—child affect communication, mother—child separation, and autonomy negotiations. For the global analysis a sensitivity/insight scale was applied to the interview text. This scale was significantly correlated with other attachment measures for the same children at 18 months (Strange Situation), 25 months (Waters & Deane Q-sort), and 37 months (Separation-Reunion Procedure, Attachment Story Completion Task). The sensitivity/insight scale was also significantly and meaningfully correlated with maternal and questionnaire dam regarding infant temperament, maternal personality and family climate. In sum, the Parent Attachment Interview provides new insights into parental experiences of the attachment relationship and can also serve as an alternative or additional measure of attachment quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of locomotion and its timing in the enhancement of emotional expression in the infant. Infant age and gender; Maternal sensitivity; Maternal perceptions of infant's emotions; Testing of wills.

Examines the training and reliability issues of the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS). Relation of meta-analysis on sensitivity with attachment; Importance of training for persons who use the EAS; Significance of inter-laboratory reliability check prior to moving forward to within-laboratory reliability.