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Quality of Mother-Child Interaction Assessed by the Emotional Availability Scale: Associations With Maternal Psychological Well-Being, Child Behavior Problems and Child Cognitive Functioning

Kang, Min Ju

Abstract Details

2005, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Human Development and Family Science.

The quality of mother-child interaction has been identified as a salient element associated with child development. Extant literature shows that sensitive and responsive maternal interactive behaviors have a positive effect on child outcomes. This work explores the use of the Emotional Availability Scale which assesses dyadic emotional attunement between caregiver and child. Six dimensions of mother-child interaction are rated: maternal sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness, nonhostility, and child involvement and responsiveness.

This study examines 1) the reliability and the validity of the Emotional Availability Scale; 2) the influence of maternal psychological well-being (i.e., depression and parenting stress) on EA; 3) the relationship between EA and child cognitive functioning; and 4) the relationships among EA, maternal psychological well-being, and child behavioral problems (i.e. externalizing and internalizing problems).

Three different study samples with different demographic characteristics were employed. The Study 1 sample consisted of the 3-years-olds, Study 2 consisted of 6-years-olds, and Study 3 consisted of different age groups ranging from 1½ to 5 ½ years-old. In study 3, the population was characterized as low income, mothers had more depressive symptoms, higher parental stress levels, and there were more child behavior problems.

Both maternal and child EA were strongly associated with child cognitive functioning, regardless of differences in child age and populations. In addition, maternal nonintrusiveness appeared to have the strongest influence on child cognitive functioning in all three studies. Further, our data suggests that children who have higher EA scores and children whose mothers have higher scores experienced fewer externalizing and internalizing problems. Among the EA dimensions, maternal nonhostility was most significantly and negatively associated with child externalizing problems and maternal nonintrusiveness was strongly related to internalizing problems.

This work also suggests that parents who experience depression or stress may demonstrate more intrusive and insensitive parenting behavior. Finally, our data suggests that the EA scale is a highly reliable and valid method for assessing mother-child interaction. Since the EA construct is closely related to maternal psychological well-being, child cognitive development, and child behavior problems, our work suggests that the EA scale may be a useful intervention tool.

Ellen Hock (Advisor)
179 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kang, M. J. (2005). Quality of Mother-Child Interaction Assessed by the Emotional Availability Scale: Associations With Maternal Psychological Well-Being, Child Behavior Problems and Child Cognitive Functioning [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124158815

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kang, Min Ju. Quality of Mother-Child Interaction Assessed by the Emotional Availability Scale: Associations With Maternal Psychological Well-Being, Child Behavior Problems and Child Cognitive Functioning. 2005. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124158815.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kang, Min Ju. "Quality of Mother-Child Interaction Assessed by the Emotional Availability Scale: Associations With Maternal Psychological Well-Being, Child Behavior Problems and Child Cognitive Functioning." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124158815

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)