Suchergebnisse

Emotional availability (EA) is a relational construct that encompasses the ability of a dyad to share an emotionally connected, safe relationship. EA is operationalized by the multidimensional framework, which includes the observational EA Scales, the observational emotional attachment zones (EA-Z), as well as the EA Self-Report (EA-SR). The observational EA Scales measure the mutual interactive influences a child and parent may have on one another through observation of their affect and behavior and consist of 4 adult dimensions (sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness, and nonhostility) and 2 child dimensions (responsiveness and involvement of the adult). The EA-Z refers to "emotional attachment styles" and is based on the summary of the observational EA Scales, assigned separately to adult and child (Emotionally Available, Complicated, Detached, Problematic/Disturbed/Traumatized or Traumatizing), with the potential that the emotional attachment perspective of the adult and child may not be the same. The EA-SR is about parental perceptions rather than observations, which should be taken into account in interpreting its findings. Collectively, these different measurements are referred to as the EA System. In this review, we focus on the EA-SR at any age, as well as EA observations, in the earliest months and adolescence.

Using a Pavlovian procedure, human subjects were conditioned to pictures of angry faces with a mild electric shock as the unconditioned stimulus. They were then tested with backward masking conditions preventing conscious recognition of the facial stimuli. In the first experiment a shock followed a particular nonmasked angry face which was exposed among many other faces. Although the subjects did not rate this face as familiar in a subsequent test when is was presented masked among other masked and nonmasked faces, it elicited larger skin conductance responses than did nonshocked control faces. This dissociation between explicit recognition and implicit skin conductance differentiation was replicated in the second experiment, in which the subjects rated their shock expectancy. Although conditioning resulted in much better differentiation between conditioned and control faces during nonmasked than masked test-trials, skin conductance differentiation did not differ between the two masking conditions.

Emotional availability (EA) is the ability to share an emotional connection within a dyad. The observational EA System includes the EA Scales and the EA Zones. The EA Scales consist of four adult dimensions (sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness, nonhostility) and two child dimensions (responsiveness, involvement). Based on the EA Scales, EA Zones refer to "emotional attachment styles" and are patterned after traditional attachment categories (Ainsworth et al., 1978). Since the review on EA by Biringen et al. (2014), extensive research on EA has utilized the EA Scales or the EA Zones, especially with respect to clinical populations and applications. We address topics absent from the 2014 review, namely, utilizing the EA System for at-risk populations and in prevention and intervention studies. We consider EA research accounting for fathers or alternative caregivers and suggest using the whole EA system versus specific dimensions. We conclude with new directions in clinical applications of EA.

AbstractObjectiveTo identify within‐family groups according to sleep schedule, problems, and impact, reflecting similarities or differences in adolescents, mothers, and fathers and to examine how mental health and attachments associate with these triadic sleep groups.BackgroundFamily relationships shape sleeping, but within‐family research in adolescence is scarce.MethodAdolescents (17–18 years; 60% girls; n = 438), mothers (n = 448), and fathers (n = 358) filled in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The adolescents reported mental health problems by the Behavior Assessment System and the parents by the General Health Questionnaire. All reported attachments by the Experiences in Close Relationships.ResultsCluster analysis identified four triadic sleep groups: "Good family sleep" (47%), "Poor adolescent and maternal sleep" (29%), "Poor paternal sleep" (16%), and "Poor family sleep" (8%). Adolescents in the "Poor family sleep" group had more mental health problems than they did in other groups, and fathers in the "Poor paternal sleep" group showed higher psychiatric symptoms than in the "Good family sleep" or "Poor adolescent and maternal sleep" groups. Adolescents in the "Poor family sleep" group reported higher insecure–anxious attachments than they did in other groups, and fathers reported higher insecure–avoidant and insecure–anxious attachments in the "Poor paternal sleep" than they did in other groups.ConclusionA family systems approach provides new insight into sleep, mental health, and attachments.ImplicationsInterventions to improve sleep quality should consider family dynamics that may underlie potential sleep problems, and sleep as a public health issue can benefit from knowledge about family mental health and attachments.

ObjectiveTo identify interplay of early maternal and paternal mental health symptoms for predicting child mental health and development.BackgroundResearch on family mental health has largely excluded fathers, although the well‐being of both parents is likely to be important for child development. In this study, we analyzed (a) intrafamilial dynamics between mothers' and fathers' early mental health symptoms and (b) the importance of separate (mother and father) and joint (additive, hierarchical, and buffering) theoretical models of parental mental health for predicting child mental health and development.MethodFinnish mothers and fathers (N = 763), half of whom conceived through assisted reproductive treatments (ART), reported their symptoms of psychological distress and depression from the pregnancy to 2 months and 12 months postpartum. Later, when the child was 7–8 years of age, parents (N = 485) reported the child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms and social and cognitive developmental problems.ResultsWe identified both co‐occurrence and compensation in intrafamilial early parental mental health. Further, mothers' symptoms alone (separate mother model) predicted child internalizing symptoms, whereas joint parental symptoms (additive model) predicted problems in executive function.ConclusionThe pre‐ and postnatal mental health of mothers and fathers is important for later child development.ImplicationsTo support healthy child development, both parents need to be screened for early mental health problems, and psychological help should be offered to families across the pre‐ and postpartum period.

AbstractFacial emotion recognition (FER) is a fundamental element in human interaction. It begins to develop soon after birth and is important in achieving developmental tasks of middle childhood, such as developing mutual friendships and acquiring social rules of peer groups. Despite its importance, FER research during middle childhood continues to be rather limited. Moreover, research is ambiguous on how the quality of one's early social‐emotional environment shapes FER development, and longitudinal studies spanning from infancy to later development are scarce. In this study, we examine how the cohesive, authoritarian, disengaged and enmeshed family system types, assessed during pregnancy and infancy, predict children's FER accuracy and interpretative biases towards happiness, fear, anger and sadness at the age of 10 years (N = 79). The results demonstrated that children from disengaged families (i.e., highly distressed relationships) show superior FER accuracy to those from cohesive families (i.e., harmonious and stable relationships). Regarding interpretative biases, children from cohesive families showed a greater fear bias compared to children from disengaged families. Our findings suggest that even in a relatively low‐risk population, variation in the quality of children's early family relationships may shape children's subsequent FER development, perhaps as an evolution‐based adaptation to their social‐emotional environment.