The quality of the mother-child relationship in high-risk dyads: application of the Emotional Availability Scales in an intergenerational, longitudinal study.

The present research examined how family psychosocial risk may be associated with emotional availability (EA) across age and time in two longitudinal, intergenerational studies with high-risk, disadvantaged mother-child dyads. Study 1 examined dyads during preschool and middle childhood. Study 2 examined a different sample of dyads, tested intensively at five time points (6, 12, and 18 months; preschool; and school age).

Touching behaviors of infants of depressed mothers during normal and perturbed interactions.

The present study investigated the touching behaviors of 4-month-old infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers during the still-face (SF; maternal emotional unavailability) and separation (SP; maternal physical unavailability) procedures. Forty-one dyads participated in the present study; dyads were from low SES backgrounds and they exhibited poor relationship qualities (e.g.