1. Introduction Methods Discussion Hypotheses Results References
Emotional Availability, Parenting Behavior Perceptions, Child Temperament and Parent Personality Characteristics in Mothers and Their 8 to 16 Month Olds Jessica Sharkey, Psy.D., K. Mark Sossin, Ph.D., Barbara Mowder, Ph.D. Pace University, New York, NY, United States of America
Conscientiousness was moderately correlated with Discipline (r = .325); Extraversion was moderately correlated with General Welfare and Protection
(r = .303), Responsivity (r = .318) and Sensitivity
(r = .322).
3. Regarding child temperment and EA, EA child responsiveness was moderately negatively related to Positive Affectivity (r = -.297), partially refuting the hypothesis.
4. Predictions regarding relationships between parent personality characteristics and maternal EA scores were not supported. It was found that there was a positive correlation between EA Structuring and Neuroticism (r = .353, p < .05).
5. A notable trend (via regression model) suggests the higher a child’s positive affectivity, the lower the EA Responsiveness (.409, p. = .052, of moderate effect size); the unstandardized regression for Extraversion (β = .403, p < .042), indicated that there was a positive relationship between Extraversion and Child Responsiveness.
-An additional multiple regression analysis was conducted, with Neuroticism and Positive Affectivity as predictors, and Sensitivity as the outcome variable. For those with lower neuroticism, the higher the maternal sensitivity, the lower the child’s positive affectivity (b = -2.98, t = -2.26, p = .032).
Introduction
Methods
This study brings together important factors from each half of the mother-child dyad: the child’s temperament, and the mother’s personality, considered individually and as combined, together with mothers’ perceptions of their parent roles and their emotional availability
Emotional availability (EA) examines the dyadic interactions between a caregiver and a child (Biringen, 2008). In regard to parent behavior perceptions, the parent development theory (PDT) (Mowder, 2005) encompasses social learning and cognitive development theories, and conceptualizes how individuals construct and modify their ideas about what being a parent means.
Individual differences in personality can shape how individuals experience and respond to the developmental task of parenting. Child temperament, as described by Rothbart and colleagues (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981), incorporates relatively stable, primarily biologically based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation. How mothers respond to their children depends in part on their own personalities and in part on their children's emotionality (Kochanska, Clark, & Ready, 2000).
The 4th Edition of the Emotional Availability Scales (EA; Biringen, 2008) was used to code 20-minute videos in a community sample of 35 mothers interacting with their 8 to 16-month-old infants
Emotional Availability In the EA Scales (Biringen, 2008), maternal dimensions are sensitivity (appropriateness and authenticity of affect, clarity of perceptions, awareness of timing, acceptance) structuring (success of guidance attempts with child, amount of structuring), nonintrusiveness (following child’s lead, finding noninterruptive ports of entry) and nonhostility (the degree of hostility, ranging from no observed hostility to covert, to overt).
Child dimensions are responsiveness (positive affect, emotional regulation, eagerness to engage with parent) and involvement of adult (degree to which the child attends to and engages the adult in play). Each of the dimensions is further broken down into 7 subscales; a global score for each dimension is also given. Participants engaged in free-play sessions, videotaped for 20 minutes each for subsequent coding by trained EA coders.
Parenting Behaviors Parent Behavior Importance Questionnaire-Revised (Mowder & Shamah, 2011). Individuals indicate how important they consider 73 parenting behaviors, which fall into seven subscales. The subscales are: bonding, discipline, education, general welfare and protection, responsivity and sensitivity
Child Temperament Child temperament was measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003). The IBQ-R items correspond to 14 dimensions/subscales of infant behavior, which can be further organized into three overarching factors: Positive Affectivity/Surgency, Negative Emotionality, and Regulatory Capacity/Orienting.
Parent Personality Parent personality was assessed with the NEO-Five Factor Inventory 3 (NEO-FFI-3) (Costa & McCrae, 2003). The NEO-FFI-3 is a short-form version (60 items) of the NEO Personality Inventory, It measures the domains of the five-factor model of personality: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.
Discussion
-First comparison between self-attribution of parenting behaviors associated with valuation of roles (PBIQ), and direct observation of parenting behavior (EA).
-Mothers who value perceiving infants’ communication, matching responses to infants’ needs, and displaying positive affect toward infants were found to display authentic affect, accurately read infant signals, and respect the infant need for autonomy with successful, proactive structuring and scaffolding
- Early constitutionally based differences in children (i.e., level of positive emotionality) evoked different parenting responses from caregivers with different personality characteristics, i.e. maternal neuroticism
The higher infants’ emotional availability, the lower their positive affectivity and regulatory capacity; younger infants had mothers who were higher in sensitivity and nonintrusiveness, and themselves displayed more responsiveness to their mothers
Different parental responses (i.e. sensitivity) may be needed during different phases of infancy, and also in relation to different types of negative reactivity (Goldsmith & Alansky, 1987).
Regarding the positive relationship between maternal neuroticism and EA Structuring, the concern for others possibly allows for provision of appropriate instruction methods, using both verbal and nonverbal means
Hypotheses
Mothers with a higher score for EA sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness and nonhostility endorse higher levels of bonding, discipline, education, general welfare, responsivity and sensitivity.
Mothers with higher extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience endorse higher levels of bonding, discipline, education, general welfare, responsivity and sensitivity.
Infants with higher Positive Affectivity/Surgency and Regulatory Capacity/Orienting have higher EA child responsiveness and child involvement. In addition, Negative Affectivity is negatively correlated to responsiveness.
Mothers higher in Neuroticism have lower EA Nonintrusiveness, and those higher on Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness have higher Sensitivity, Structuring and Nonintrusiveness.
The more positive the mother personality characteristics, the stronger the relationship between child EA and child positive affectivity/surgency.
Results
Mothers’ EA structuring was significantly correlated, in the predicted direction, with the PBIQ-R bonding subscale (r = .390, p < .05) and EA sensitivity with PBIQ-R Responsivity (r = .380, p < .05).
There were moderate effect sizes found between parent personality characteristics and parenting behavior perceptions. Given the sample size, correlations were not significant.
References