Trajectories of mothers’ emotional availability: relations with infant temperament in predicting attachment security

ABSTRACT

The present study examined observations of parenting quality (mothers’ emotional availability – EA) during infant bedtimes at 4 points across the infants’ first year, assessing relations between levels and trajectories of EA and infant attachment at 12 months and the role of infant temperament in moderating these associations. The sample (N = 128) was predominantly Euro-American (82.5%) and at low socioeconomic risk. Latent growth curve modeling with latent basis coefficients indicated substantial individual differences in initial levels and slopes in EA trajectories across the first year. Both levels of maternal EA and EA trajectories across the first year predicted 12-month infant attachment security. Although maternal EA tended to decrease across the first year in the full sample, EA trajectories that showed a “bounce-back” between 6 and 12 months, suggesting more successful maternal adaptation to an expanding infant developmental repertoire, predicted greater infant security at 12 months. In addition, linkages between latent EA trajectories and 12-month attachment were moderated by 3-month infant temperamental reactivity and regulation. These findings indicate that infant attachment security is sensitive to both static and dynamic aspects of parenting quality across the first year, and that infant temperament can interact with both in predicting infant attachment.

KEYWORDS:

• Parenting trajectories
• maternal emotional availability
• infant temperament
• infant attachment security

Acknowledgements

We thank Corey Whitesell, Cori Reed, and Renee Stewart for their hard work in coordinating this project. Special thanks are given to the participating families.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Health and Human Development: [Grant Number R01 HD052809] awarded to the 4th author.