Parental Representations and Emotional Availability: The Case of Children with Autism and Severe Behavior Problems.

Studies suggest that parents' emotional availability (EA) is associated with children's wellbeing, including in the case of children with autism. Our study extended prior research by examining the role of parents' representations in fostering parental EA and by focusing on fathers and on children with autism and severe behavior problems. We expected that parents' positive representations would be associated with higher EA and compared mothers' and fathers' representations and EA.

The social skills of autistic boys in preschool: the contributions of their dyadic and triadic interactions with their parents.

Background: The interactions of typically developing (TD) children within the family context are associated with their social skills in preschool, and the question guiding this study, which focused on boys, was whether the same would be true for autistic children. A specific focus was on the importance of the boys' engagement in triadic, mother-father-child interactions over and above their engagement in dyadic, parent-child interactions. The boys' social skills were assessed concurrently with their family interactions and one year later.

Early maternal guidance of mother-child emotion dialogues predicts adolescents' attachment representations: a longitudinal study.

This study examined the contribution of early vs. concurrent maternal guidance of emotion dialogues with their children to the security and coherence of the children's attachment representations as adolescents. Maternal Sensitive Guidance was assessed from mother-child emotion dialogues when participants were preschoolers (approximate age 4 years) and young adolescents (approximate age 12.

An invited commentary on mentoring in infant mental health: A symposium commemorating Robert N. Emde.

This paper is based on a symposium on mentoring in infant mental health that took place at the 18th World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH) conference. The symposium commemorated Robert N. Emde who was one of the founders of the field of Infant Mental Health, and devoted much of his career to mentorship.

Positive and challenging themes in parents' perceptions of their relationships with their child with autism: Comparison between mothers and fathers.

Most studies of how parents of children with autism see the parent-child relationship used questionnaires completed by the parents and focused on challenges. This study broadened the lens by interviewing parents using open-ended questions that provide an opportunity to raise challenging but also positive experiences. Seventy-five mother-father dyads were interviewed individually about their own and their spouses' relationships with their preschooler, and we found nine relationship themes.

Parental insightfulness is associated with mother-father-child interactions among families of preschoolers with an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis.

Background: Parental insightfulness underlies parental sensitive behavior and is associated with secure attachment among Typically Developing (TD) children and also among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Moving beyond the parent-child dyad, a study of TD children and their parents linked mothers' and fathers' combined insightfulness to triadic interactions. The goal of the current study was to examine this association in families with children with ASD.

Disrupted maternal communication and disorganized attachment in the Arab society in Israel.

Disrupted maternal communication during mother-infant interaction has been found to be associated with infants' disorganized attachment, but has been studied primarily in North American and European samples and not in Arab samples. To address this gap the study examined the association between disrupted maternal communication and infant attachment in a sample of 50 Arab mothers and their one-year-old infants in Israel. Attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), and disrupted communication with the AMBIANCE.

The combined contribution of maternal sensitivity and disrupted affective communication to infant attachment in an Israeli sample.

Maternal sensitivity and disrupted communication are usually considered independently as antecedents of attachment security and attachment disorganization, respectively. This study examined whether considering them jointly allows specific predictions of attachment classifications. The sample ( = 159) was selected from a previous study conducted in Israel between 1991-1993, and over-represented disorganized and ambivalent attachment.

Attachment to fathers and mothers in preschoolers with an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis.

We examined whether the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) is applicable not only for assessing children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their mothers but also with their fathers. Forty preschoolers with ASD were observed in the SSP with their mothers and 39 with their fathers. Unexpectedly, the SSP was found to be not applicable (NA) to 25% of the SSPs with fathers because levels of attachment behavior were minimal, but all SSPs with mothers were codable.

Nursing aides' mentalization, expressed emotion, and observed interaction with residents with dementia: A quasi-experimental study.

This study examined the associations between nursing aides' mentalization, expressed emotion, and observed sensitivity towards their residents with dementia. The study also explored whether nursing aides' mentalization and expressed emotion are relational constructs that vary with residents' characteristics and behavior. To assess mentalization and expressed emotion (i.

Emotional availability in dyads of nursing aide - resident with dementia: Old tool, new perspective.

Objectives: This study examined the emotional availability of nursing aide-resident with dementia dyads in a long-term care-facility. Emotional availability refers to the nursing aide's sensitivity toward the resident, structuring their interactions in a non-intrusive and non-hostile manner and the resident's responsiveness to and involvement of the nursing aide. The study evaluated the reciprocity in the emotional availability of nursing aides and the residents and examined whether emotional availability varies with the level of difficulty of taking care of the residents and with the context of the interaction.

Disrupted affective communication characterizes mothers of infants with disorganized but also ambivalent attachments: An Israeli study.

This study examined whether maternal disrupted communication, which is associated with disorganized infant attachment, also characterizes mothers of ambivalent infants. The study, conducted in Israel, included a Jewish sample (N = 163; 68 Girls) from diverse socioeconomic status, collected between 1991 and 1993 in an earlier study. The sample over-represented ambivalent and disorganized attachments.

Disrupted maternal communication and attachment disorganization in children with autism spectrum disorder.

We examined whether disrupted maternal communication, which is associated with disorganized attachment in typically developing children, is also associated with disorganized attachment in children with ASD. The attachments of 45 boys with ASD and maternal disruption were assessed in the Strange Situation Procedure. Analyses revealed a link between low cognitive functioning and resistant/ambivalent and disorganized attachment, and children's functioning was therefore controlled.

The reaction to diagnosis questionnaire: a preliminary validation of a new self-report measure to assess parents' resolution of their child's diagnosis.

Parents' resolution of their child's diagnosis is associated with parental sensitivity and secure child attachment. The Reaction to Diagnosis Interview (RDI) is the accepted measure for assessing resolution, but its administration and coding are time and labor intensive. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Reaction to Diagnosis Questionnaire (RDQ), a new self-report measure that assesses resolution.

Maternal mind-mindedness and its association with attachment: the case of Arab infants and mothers in Israel.

We examined the association between maternal Mind-Mindedness (MM) and secure attachment in an Arab sample in Israel. Seventy-six infant-mother dyads were observed during free play to assess maternal MM and in the Strange Situation Procedure to assess attachment. Mothers of secure infants were hypothesized to use more appropriate and fewer non-attuned mind-related comments than mothers of insecure infants.

Maternal insightfulness protects against the detrimental effects of postpartum stress on positive parenting among at-risk mother-infant dyads.

The current study evaluated whether maternal insightfulness can buffer the negative influence of postpartum stressful life events on maternal parenting behaviors. Participants were 125 mother-infant dyads (55% boys) who present a subsample of a larger longitudinal study on maternal maltreatment during childhood and its impact on peripartum maternal adjustment. Women were primarily white and middle class.

Parental insightfulness: retrospect and prospect.

We open this introductory paper to the special issue with the theoretical and clinical roots of the insightfulness concept. Next, the Insightfulness Assessment (IA) is presented, followed by a review of key empirical findings supporting the IA. The central points in the papers in this special issue are reviewed next.

Adolescent insightfulness toward a close friend: its roots in maternal insightfulness and child attachment in infancy.

Two antecedents of the insightfulness of adolescents into a close friend's experience were examined: The insightfulness of the mother and the attachment of the child, both measured when the adolescent was an infant. We hypothesized that both antecedents would be associated with adolescent insightfulness. Maternal insightfulness was assessed using the Insightfulness Assessment (IA) in which mothers are interviewed about their children's thoughts and feelings after viewing short video segments of their interactions with their children, and infant attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure.

Infant Attachment and Maternal Sensitivity in the Arab Minority in Israel.

This study is the first to examine infant-mother attachment in the Arab culture. Eighty-five Arab 1-year-old infants from Israel were observed in the strange situation, and maternal sensitivity was assessed from home observations. Supporting attachment theory's normativity hypothesis, no differences were found between the Arab-Israeli attachment distribution and Jewish-Israeli, Western, and non-Western distributions when examined at the two-way secure versus insecure level, although a few differences emerged when examined at the four-way ABCD level.

Parental insightfulness is associated with cooperative interactions in families with toddlers.

A growing body of research has highlighted the importance of mother-father-child interactions in families with toddlers, but little is known about the internal processes underlying parenting in such interactions. Dyadic studies of parent-child relationships have focused on parental insightfulness as promoting sensitive parent-child interactions, and the goal of the present study was to examine whether insightfulness would similarly be associated with cooperative triadic interactions. To address this question, we observed 77 mother-father-toddler triads in the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) procedure to assess family cooperation, and the insightfulness of each parent was assessed using the Insightfulness Assessment, a video replay procedure in which parents are interviewed regarding their children's thoughts and feelings after watching short video clips of the children.

Stability and change in resolution of diagnosis among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: Child and parental contributions.

The contribution of change over time in parent and child characteristics to parents' resolution of child's diagnosis was examined among 78 mothers and fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder. Children's characteristics (e.g.

The insightfulness assessment: measuring the internal processes underlying maternal sensitivity.

In her description of sensitive mothers, Ainsworth described not only maternal behaviors but also the internal processes underlying such behavior, including the capacity to "see things from the child's point of view". Ainsworth assessed this capacity from her extensive observations of mothers interacting with their infants, from records of mothers' talk to the babies, and from brief interviews about their babies. Attachment researchers following Ainsworth focused primarily on observations of maternal sensitive behavior, however, and the processes underlying such behavior were mostly inferred from the mothers' behavior.

Open-label, multicentre expansion cohort to evaluate imgatuzumab in pre-treated patients with KRAS-mutant advanced colorectal carcinoma.

Aim: Imgatuzumab (GA201) is a novel anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (anti-EGFR) antibody glycoengineered for enhanced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). We investigated the efficacy of imgatuzumab in patients with EGFR-positive, KRAS-mutant advanced colorectal cancer.

Methods: Patients received single-agent imgatuzumab (1400mg on day 1 and 8 followed by q2W) as third line therapy in an open-label, multicentre, non-randomised, expansion study.