How do Emotional Availability, Attachment, and Parenting Stress Relate to Attachment Security? Findings from Turkish Mother-Toddler Dyads.

Maternal characteristics mainly shape attachment security in early childhood and can impact toddler's emotional and social development. Although early determinants of attachment have been widely explored in the West, the studies in non-Western cultures are limited, especially in high-risk groups such as low-SES samples. Therefore, we examined the role of maternal parenting stress, attachment dimensions of anxiety and avoidance in romantic relationships and emotional availability in toddlers' attachment security. The Turkish mothers (N = 63; Mage = 30.17; SD = 4.87) filled out a pack of questionnaires including the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1995) and Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R; Fraley et al., 2000) before video recorded home visits. The toddlers' (Mage = 22.96 months, SD = 7.09) attachment security was coded for Attachment Q-Sort (AQS; Waters, 1995) based on 2.5-h home-visit and 10-min free-play sessions were coded for Emotional Availability Scales (EAS; Biringen, 2008). The results showed that the mother's attachment avoidance and parenting stress were negatively associated with the child's attachment security, while the maternal sensitivity and structuring were positively associated with the child's attachment security. The mothers' behaviours on EAS did not mediate the relationship between maternal attachment dimensions and toddlers' attachment security. We showed that maternal attachment avoidance, parenting stress, lack of sensitivity and structuring behaviours could contribute to insecure attachment in Turkish toddlers. These identified factors warrant attention in the design and implementation of early intervention programs, particularly for mothers from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds in Turkey and in non-Western cultures characterised by similar cultural characteristics. Highlights: We examined the role of parenting stress, attachment, and emotional availability on the toddlers' attachment security. The results were obtained through observational data collected in-home visits from a sample of mothers and toddlers from low-SES background. This study represents one of the first attempts to apply Emotional Availability Scales and Attachment Q-Sort in a non-Western cultural context. Maternal attachment avoidance, parenting stress, sensitivity, and structuring emerged as potential early intervention areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]