Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:19:28.132Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emotional availability: Research advances and theoretical questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2012

David Oppenheim
David Oppenheim*
Affiliation:
University of Haifa
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: David Oppenheim, Center for the Study of Child Development, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The commentary opens by highlighting the contribution of the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS) in providing developmental researchers with a clinically sensitive and reliable assessment of the emotional quality of caregiver–child interactions that takes into consideration their coregulated nature. The numerous studies that have used the EAS attest to their usefulness and to the way they balance complexity and attention to emotional nuances with clarity. Several issues with regard to the EAS are discussed subsequently. First, I propose that looking at patterns of the EA scales might be a way to capture the quality of each dyad's emotional dialogue. Second, I suggest that the description of attachment research as concerned almost exclusively with the regulation of distress is inaccurate, in light of Ainsworth's broad assessment of naturalistic home observations. Third, I raise the possibility that additional specialized coding systems beyond the EAS may be needed for predicting certain specific psychopathological outcomes (e.g., disorganized attachment). Fourth, I propose that it is important to explore cross-culturally the meaning of the behaviors on which the EAS focus, rather than assume cross-cultural equivalence. Fifth and finally, I point out the importance of placing the EAS in the context of the existing literature on early intervention and treatment.

Type
Special Section Commentaries
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 131 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41, 49–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Bell, S. M., & Stayton, D. J. (1974). Infant–mother attachment and social development. In Richards, M. P. (Ed.), The introduction of the child into a social world (pp. 99–135). London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Beebe, B., & Lachman, F. M. (2002). Infant research and adult treatment: Co-constructing interactions. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.Google Scholar
Belsky, J. (1999). Interactional and contextual determinants of attachment security. In Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 249–264). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Berlin, L., Ziv, Y., Amaya-Jackson, L., & Greenberg, M. (2005). Enhancing early attachments: Theory, research, intervention, and policy. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Biringen, Z., & Easterbrooks, A. (2012). Emotional availability: Concept, research, and window on developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blehar, M. C., Lieberman, A. F., & Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1977). Early face-to-face interaction and its relation to later infant–mother attachment. Child Development, 48, 182–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brazelton, T. B., & Cramer, B. G., (1989). The earliest relationship: Parents, infants, and the drama of early attachment. Reading, MA: Addison–Wesley.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. (2009). The past achievements and future promises of developmental psychopathology: The coming of age of a discipline. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 16–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dolev, S., Oppenheim, D., Koren-Karie, N., & Yirmiya, N. (2009). Emotional Availability in mother–child interaction: The case of children with autism spectrum disorders. Parenting: Science and Practice, 9, 183–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterbrooks, M. A., Bureau, J.-F., & Lyons-Ruth, R. (2012). Developmental coherence in predictors and correlates of emotional availability in mother–child interaction: A longitudinal study from infancy to late adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 65–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elicker, J., Georgescu, O., & Bartsch, E. (2008). Increasing the sensitivity of infant–toddler child care providers: Applying the VIPP approach. In Juffer, F., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & IJzendoorn, M. H. van (Eds.), Promoting positive parenting: An attachment-based intervention (pp. 155–170). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Emde, R. N. (1980). Emotional availability: A reciprocal reward system for infants and parents with implications for prevention of psychosocial disorders. In Taylor, P. M. (Ed.), Parent–infant relationships (pp. 87–115). Orlando, FL: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Fogel, A. (1993). Developing through relationships: Communication, self, and culture in early infancy. London: Harvester–Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Lyons-Ruth, K., Bronfman, E., & Parsons, E. (1999). Atypical attachment in infancy and early childhood among children at developmental risk: Part IV. Maternal frightened, frightening, or atypical behavior and disorganized infant attachment patterns. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 64, 67–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Berman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant: Symbiosis and individuation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Madigan, S., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Moran, G., Pederson, D. R., & Benoit, D. (2006). Unresolved states of mind, anomalous parental behavior, and disorganized attachment: A review and meta-analysis of a transmission gap. Attachment & Human Development, 8, 89–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oppenheim, D., & Koren-Karie, N. (2009). Mother–child emotion dialogues: A window into the psychological secure base. In Quas, J. & Fivush, R. (Eds.), Emotion and memory in development: Biological, cognitive, and social considerations (pp. 142–165). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pederson, D. R., & Moran, G. (1995). Appendix B. Maternal behavior Q-set. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 60(2–3, Serial No. 244), 247–254.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sameroff, A. J., McDonough, S. C., & Rosenblum, K. L. (2004). Treating infant–parent relationship problems: Strategies for intervention. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1977). Attachment as an organizational construct. Child Development, 48, 1184–1199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Tronick, E. (1989). Emotions and emotional communication in infants. American Psychologist, 44, 112–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van den Dries, L.Juffer, F.van IJzendoorn, M. H.Bakersman-Kranenburg, M. J., & Allink, L. R. A. (2012). Infants' responsiveness, attachment, and indiscriminant friendliness after international adoption from institutions or foster care in China: Application of the Emotional Availability Scales to adoptive familes. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 49–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Sagi, A. (1999). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: Universal and contextual determinants. In Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 713–734). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
van IJzendoorn, M. H., Vereijken, C. M. J. L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Riksen-Walraven, J. M. (2004). Assessing attachment security with the Attachment Q-Sort: Meta-analytic evidence for the validity of the observer AQS. Child Development, 75, 1188–1213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waters, E., & Cummings, E. M. (2000). A secure base from which to explore close relationships. Child Development, 71, 164–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waters, E., & Deane, K. E. (1985). Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment relationships: Q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1–2, Serial No. 209).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeanah, C. H., & Doyle-Zeanah, P. (2009). The scope of infant mental health. In Zeanah, C. H. (Ed.), Handbook of infant mental health (3rd ed., pp. 5–21). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar