Emotional availability of father–child dyads versus mother–child dyads in children aged 0–3 years

Abstract

This article explores differences in emotional availability (EA) between mothers and fathers and effects of child sex and child age in a sample of 48 families with typically developing children aged 7 months to 3 years 10 months. We videotaped mother–child and father–child free-play interactions and coded them with the fourth edition of the EA scales (Biringen, 2008). The results indicate that mothers are more emotionally available than fathers, which emerges from slight differences in sensitivity, structuring, and nonintrusiveness. Especially when interacting with young children, fathers scored lower on sensitivity and structuring, whereas mothers were equally sensitive and provided optimal structuring toward all children regardless of their age. Further, girls did not differ from boys with respect to EA, but parents provided more optimal structuring toward older children and older children showed higher levels of responsiveness and involvement than younger children. Implications and prospects for future studies are discussed.

Keywords:

• emotional availability
• father–child interaction
• mother–child interaction

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany, FKZ: 01EO1001. Special thanks are due to all the families who participated in this project.