Emotional Relationships in Mothers and Infants: Culture-Common and Community-Specific Characteristics of Dyads from Rural and Metropolitan Settings in Argentina, Italy, and the United States.

This study uses country and regional contrasts to examine culture-common and community-specific variation in mother-infant emotional relationships. Altogether, 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S.

Developmental Continuity and Stability of Emotional Availability in the Family: Two Ages and Two Genders in Child-Mother Dyads from Two Regions in Three Countries.

This study employs an intra-national and cross-national, prospective and longitudinal design to examine age, gender, region, and country variation in group mean-level continuity and individual-differences stability of emotional availability in child-mother dyads. Altogether, 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S.

Mother-child emotional availability in ecological perspective: three countries, two regions, two genders.

This study used a cross-national framework to examine country, region, and gender differences in emotional availability (EA), a prominent index of mutual socioemotional adaptation in the parent-child dyad. Altogether 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S.

Maternal chronological age, prenatal and perinatal history, social support, and parenting of infants.

The role of maternal chronological age in prenatal and perinatal history, social support, and parenting practices of new mothers (N=335) was examined. Primiparas of 5-month-old infants ranged in age from 13 to 42 years. Age effects were zero, linear, and nonlinear.

Short-Term Reliability and Continuity of Emotional Availability in Mother-Child Dyads Across Contexts of Observation.

Emotional availability (EA) is a prominent index of socioemotional adaptation in the parent-child dyad. Is EA affected by context? In this methodological study, 34 mothers and their 2-year-olds were observed in 2 different settings (home vs. laboratory) 1 week apart.

Shedding further light on the effects of various types and quality of early child care on infant-mother attachment relationship: the Haifa Study of Early Child Care.

The Haifa Study of Early Child Care recruited a large-scale sample (N = 758) that represented the full SES spectrum in Israel, to examine the unique contribution of various child-care-related correlates to infant attachment. After controlling for other potential contributing variables--including mother characteristics, mother-child interaction, mother-father relationship, infant characteristics and development, and the environment--this study found that center-care, in and of itself, adversely increased the likelihood of infants developing insecure attachment to their mothers as compared with infants who were either in maternal care, individual nonparental care with a relative, individual nonparental care with a paid caregiver, or family day-care. The results suggest that it is the poor quality of center-care and the high infant-caregiver ratio that accounted for this increased level of attachment insecurity among center-care infants.