Emotional Availability During Mother–Child Interactions in Divorcing and Intact Married Families

Abstract

Low-quality parent–child interactions have been associated with children's behavioral and emotional problems. Further, research has shown that divorce can be a stressful time for both parents and children, and might be linked with children's negative adjustment. The hypothesis of this study was that parent–child dyads will show lower quality interactions in divorcing versus intact families. Specifically, we posited lower mean scores on emotional availability (EA), which includes four caregiver qualities and two child qualities, during mother–child interactions in divorcing as compared with intact married families. Secondary data analysis was conducted on these two groups drawn from two separate samples. The samples were comparable in terms of maternal education and child age. Nonparametric tests revealed that these groups differed significantly on one dimension of EA—maternal sensitivity—with mother–child dyads from married families displaying a higher level of sensitivity than mother–child dyads from divorcing families. This finding could prompt new research as well as an increased emphasis on parental support in divorce-related interventions and education about the meaning of maternal sensitivity and how it could be maintained during the divorce transition.

Keywords:

• attachment
• divorce
• divorcing
• emotional availability
• mother–child interactions
• parenting
• preschool