2006 Bornstein Short-Term Stability and Continuity

Emotional Availability in Mother-Child Dyads: Short-Term Stability and Continuity From
Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Perspectives

Author(s): Marc H. Bornstein, Motti Gini, Joan T. D. Suwalsky, Diane L. Putnick and O.
Maurice Haynes
Source: Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3, SPECIAL ISSUE: Person-Centered and
Variable-Centered Approaches to Longitudinal Data (July 2006), pp. 547-571
Published by: Wayne State University Press
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Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3
Emotional Availability in Mother-Child Dyads:

Short-TermStability and ContinuityFrom
Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Perspectives
Marc H. Bornstein, Motti Gini, Joan T. D. Suwalsky, Diane L. Putnick, and

O. Maurice Haynes, National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health

and Human Services
Emotional availability (EA) is a prominent index of socioemotional adaptation in

the parent-child dyad. Can basic psychometric properties of EA be looked at
from both variable (scale) and person (cluster) points of view in individuals and
in dyads? Is EA stable and continuous over a short period of time? This method
ological study shows significant short-term stability and continuity in EA as meas

ured with individual and dyadic Emotional Availability Scales and in clusters of
individuals and dyads on EA scores in 52 mothers and their 5-month-olds
observed twice at home. This work documents psychometric properties of the
emotional availability construct from both variable and person orientations.
Emotional availability (EA; Emde, 1980; Emde & Easterbrooks, 1985) is a

relationship construct that refers to the quality of emotional exchanges
between parents and their children and focuses on the two partners' accessi
bility to each other and their ability to read and respond to each other's
communications (Biringen & Robinson, 1991). Maternal emotional dis
plays serve to communicate, to engage and maintain child attention, to
extend social interaction, and to mark important dyadic events (Martin,

Clements, & Crnic, 2002). Reciprocally, children provide multiple cues
that express their emotional needs (Barnard, 1976; Barnard et al., 1989).
We thank E. Beatty, S. Bottjer, R. Chang, M. Chatham, D. Falk, M. Heslington, Κ. Hill,

M. Kline, S. Latif, A. Rakow, E. Reitz, K. Schultess, T. Toney, I. Vaughn, and C. Varron for assis
tance.
Correspondence should be directed to Marc H. Bornstein, Child and Family Research,
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive,
Bethesda MD 20892-7971. E-mail: Marc_H_Bornstein@nih.gov.
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, July 2006, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 547-571. Copyright © 2006 by Wayne
State University Press, Detroit, Ml 48201.
547

548 Merrill-Palmer Quarterly
The Emotional Availability Scales (Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1998)

were designed to assess the EA construct through observations and ratings
of parent-child interaction. A growing body of evidence using these scales
shows that both parent and child components of EA relate to quality of
attachment (Easterbrooks & Biringen, 2000) as well as to other aspects of
the parent-child relationship (for reviews see Biringen, 2000; Pipp-Siegel
& Biringen, 1998), suggesting that the EA framework can be used in "a
global way to describe the overall quality of the affective relationship"
between parent and child (Biringen, 2000, p. 112).
Each individual scale focuses on the behavior of one partner; however,
all EA dimensions are viewed as "relationship variables" because each
takes the other partner's behavior into account. Thus, the Emotional Avail
ability Scales assess specific behaviors of individuals but at the same time
constitute global ratings of dyads and emphasize joint interactional style. In
this sense, the Emotional Availability Scales lend themselves to comple
mentary analyses from individual and dyadic variable and person perspec
tives. In this article we adopt the generic term variable to describe the
approach specific to scale analyses of individuals or dyads, and we use the
generic term person to describe the holistic approach to the analyses of
clusters of individuals or dyads.

The dominant approach to assessment in developmental science uses
single variables, combinations of variables, or relations among variables as

the main conceptual and analytical units (Hartmann & Pelzel, 2005). Here a
single datum for an individual derives psychological meaning from its posi
tion relative to the positions of data from other individuals on a given
dimension. "In a variable approach, the lawfulness of structures and
processes in individual functioning and development is studied in terms of

statistical relations among variables. . . . Individuals differ only quantita
tively, not qualitatively, along the dimension for a certain variable" (Mag
nusson, 1998, pp. 45-46, emphasis added).
However, the configuration of individual variables in a system also has
meaning, and information about the individual or dyad as a gestalt is of
interest as well. The person approach is based on a holistic-interactionistic
research paradigm to development and functioning, meaning that it sees the
individual or dyad as an organized whole, functioning and developing as a
totality (Magnusson & Allen, 1983). The totality derives its characteristic
features and properties from interactions among its elements (the whole is
more than the sum of the parts) rather than from the effect of isolated parts
of the totality or as an integration of variables. In the person approach, each
datum derives its psychological meaning from its place in a pattern of data
representing positions on latent dimensions under study. That is, the total

EAS Short-Term Stability and Continuity 549
dynamic complex process is not understood by summing the results of sin
gle aspects; rather, the whole individual or dyad is the main conceptual and
analytical unit.
The variable approach uses methods that focus on values on a scale; the
person approach uses methods that focus on patterns or configurations of
values in variables in individuals

or in dyads. The variable approach to
measurement posits that individuals or dyads assume positions on latent
dimensions for relevant factors and undertakes to locate individuals or
dyads on those dimension(s); the appropriate measurement technique is
one that discriminates along the entire range of possible positions. By con
trast, the person approach undertakes to assign individuals or dyads to clus
ters within a total system; the appropriate measurement technique is one
that uses information about the individual or dyad to cluster it with other
like individuals or dyads. In the present study, we analyzed and compared
emotional availability in mothers, infants, and mother-infant dyads at the
variable level through the use of individual Emotional Availability Scales
and at the person level though the application of a cluster analytic proce
dure that groups individuals and dyads into clusters that show similar rat
ings on the Emotional Availability Scales.
Despite the value of the Emotional Availability Scales in increasing our
understanding of parent-child socioemotional development, there is a
dearth of studies that have systematically examined the psychometric prop
erties of this measure. This paucity of research is unfortunate because the
clinical and empirical value of developmental assessments rests on ade
quate psychometrics. Exploring the psychometric characteristics of these
scales is particularly important because the extent to which variation meas
ured by the scales represents the individual's or dyad's characteristic "emo
tional climate" (Biringen & Robinson, 1991) versus its contextual (stable
or unstable) circumstances (perhaps reflective of a particular time or obser
vational setting) remains clouded. More specifically, it is unclear whether
EA in mothers, infants, and mother-infant dyads shows stability and conti
nuity over a short period of time.
As with much of traditional developmental science (Hartmann &
Pelzel, 2005), we were concerned in this study to assess mean level in the
group across time (the developmental function) as well as variation about
the mean (individual differences). "Stability" describes consistency
through time in the relative ranks of mothers, infants, or dyads on the Emo
tional Availability Scales from the variable perspective and consistency
through time in cluster membership of the individual or dyad from the per
son perspective. Stability applies to both the variable and person perspec
tives on EA. If EA showed stability, some mothers, infants, and dyads

would display EA at relatively high levels at one point in time and they
would display EA at relatively high levels at a second later point in time,
whereas other mothers, infants, and dyads would display EA at lower levels
at both times; dyads would also maintain their cluster membership over
time. "Continuity" describes consistency in the group mean level of EA
through time. If EA showed continuity from the variable perspective, moth
ers, infants, and dyads as a group would display EA at statistically the same
level at one point in time and at a second point later in time. (Consistency
from the person perspective is contained in the cluster analyses and cannot
be easily tested because there are no mean levels to compare across time.)
Stability and continuity reflect different realms of development, and

they are conceptually and statistically independent (Bornstein, Brown, &
Slater, 1996; McCall, 1981). For example "stable-and-continuous" de
scribes the situation where individuals or dyads in the group are consistent
in their relative ranks or in their cluster membership over time, and the
group mean level remains consistent over time. However, individuals or
dyads in the group may remain relatively consistent in their ranks or in their
cluster membership over time, but the group mean level could change over
time (increase or decrease): "stable-and-discontinuous." And so forth, for

"unstable-and-continuous" and "unstable-and-discontinuous."
There are fundamental reasons to evaluate both stability and continuity

of EA. Each is descriptive and explanatory of development in its own way.
Whether mothers, infants, or dyads maintain their rank order or their cluster
membership through time in EA informs not only about variation in EA but

also contributes to understanding its possible origins, nature, and future.
Whether mothers, infants, or dyads as a group remain the same or change
(up or down) in the mean level of their EA through time not only informs
about the general course of development of EA but also provides clues as to
its nature, future, origins, and perhaps effectiveness (McCall, 1981; Robin
son, Emde, & Korfmacher, 1997). Developmental scientists are therefore
broadly interested not only in manifestations and quality of functions and

processes like EA but also in their developmental stability and continuity
through time (Wohlwill, 1973).
Virtually all studies to date have adopted a variable perspective to EA.
Previous studies employing multiple assessments of the Emotional Availabil
ity Scales across time shed preliminary light on these psychometric issues.
Ziv, Gini, Guttman, and Sagi (1997), for example, examined emotional avail
ability in 89 Israeli dyads when infants were 6, 12, and 20 months of age. The
firstvisit was conducted at home and the others in the laboratory. Consider
able stability for maternal and infant scales across the three time points was
reported. In a second study, Biringen et al. (1999) rated EA at home when

children were 9, 12, and 14 months old. Although no stability data for E A
across the three time points were provided, the authors reported continuity for
maternal structuring/intrusiveness and for child responsiveness and reported
a significant discontinuity (i.e., increase in mean level) in maternal sensitivity
and child involving across time. Finally, Biringen, Matheny, Bretherton,
Renouf, and Sherman (2000) studied 40 dyads when children were 18, 24,
and 39 months of age. Their firsttwo visits were conducted at home and the
last at a laboratory. Maternal scales proved stable from 18 to 24 months in the
home visits, but no relations were found from these time points to the labora
tory assessment at 39 months.
Taken together, these findings raise two psychometric questions. First,

results are contradictory with respect to the issue of stability (individual
rank order), and it is impossible to know if lack of stability (when reported)
is ascribable to inadequate psychometric properties of the scales or if it can
be accounted for by developmental changes related to the sometimes rela
tively long intervals between assessments or changes in venue. Further
more, in interpreting the Emotional Availability Scales, it is crucial to know

if the measured scales can be seen as representative of the dyad's relation
ship. A specific aim of the present study was, therefore, to examine short
term stability of individual Emotional Availability Scales and EA of the
dyad over approximately a 1-week interval. Insofar as individual differ
ences in EA reflect general qualities of the dyad's "emotional climate," we
predicted that measures of mother and infant EA would be (at least) moder
ately stable over the short-term from both variable (the individual and
dyadic Emotional Availability Scales) and person (the individual and
dyadic clustering of EA) perspectives.
Second, estimates of the Emotional Availability Scales' continuity
(group mean level) over a short time period are also needed to establish
consistency of the measure. Changes in mean levels of EA over a relatively
brief interval would indicate that this system is sensitive to temporal

aspects of mother-infant interaction instead of capturing stable, global
emotional qualities of the individuals or of their relationship. Therefore,
this methodological investigation also aimed to evaluate the short-term
continuity of EA, and we expected that measures of mother, infant, and
dyadic EA would not differ in mean level over the short-term.
In overview, this study of emotional availability was undertaken to
address several methodological questions and had several interconnected
main goals. The firstgoal was to explore the structure of EA in terms of vari
able and person analyses. The second and third goals were to determine the
short-term stability (i.e., maintenance of rank order) and continuity (i.e.,
maintenance of group mean level) of EA from variable and person points of

view in mothers, infants, and mother-infant dyads. In the present study we

explored the unit of analysis (the individual vs. the dyad) crossed with the
method of analysis (variable vs. person). In the variable-centered approach at
the level of the individual we computed correlations and contrasted means for
the individual Emotional Availability Scales across time, and in the variable
centered approach at the level of the dyad we computed correlations and con
trasted means across time using scores derived by summing or averaging the
scales. In the person-centered approach at the level of the individual, we
derived clusters of mothers and infants from the Emotional Availability
Scales. In the person-centered approach at the level of the dyad, we derived
clusters of mother-infant pairs. To accomplish these goals, we addressed
issues of stability and continuity of the Emotional Availability Scales and sta
bility of EA cluster memberships among mothers and their 5-month-old
infants during two naturalistic home observations conducted approximately 1
week apart. The sample we recruited was balanced with respect to child gen
der so that we could also examine potential differences in EA between moth
ers of girls and mothers of boys, and between daughters and sons themselves
(Fagot, 1995; Leaper, 2002; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974).
Method
Participants
Altogether 52 primiparous mothers and their 5-month-old infants (29 girls,

23 boys), recruited through mass mailings and newspaper advertisements,
participated. Mothers were asked to provide sociodemographic information
on infant gender, birth weight, and health; parental age, education, occupa
tion, and marital status; family intactness; and number of hours of maternal
employment per week outside the home. On average, infants were 161.8 days
of age (SD = 4.4, range = 153-173) at the time of the first observation, all
infants were firstbornterm children, weighed at least 2,500 g (M- 3,506.7 g,
SD = 403.7), had not experienced any prenatal or postnatal health complica
tions, and were healthy at the time of the study. We focused on middle
infancy, specifically 5 to 6 months, because of the intentionality and flexibil
ity in behavioral organization demonstrated by most normally developing
infants at this time. No longer fetus ex utero, by the middle of the firstyear the
infant's scope of apperception has broadened to the dyad and beyond, and
infants actively explore their environment and participate in turn-taking
exchanges (Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda, 1990; Stern, 1985).
Mothers averaged 30.09 years (SD = 4.87, range = 16.34^10.77), and
they were all of European American descent and represented a wide range

of SES (Four-Factor Index of Social Status; Hollingshead, 1975; M =

55.63, SD = 10.08, range = 16.0-66.0; see Bornstein, Hahn, Suwalsky, &
Haynes, 2003). Ninety-four percent (n = 49) of the mothers were married at
the time of the study (M = 3.65 years of marriage, SD - 2.43, range =
.91-12.20); 3 adolescent mothers were not married. For all families, with
the exception of 1 adolescent mother, the baby's father was living in the
home. Fathers averaged 33.36 years (SD - 6.82, range = 17.36-49.73) of
age. Although parents were, on average, college educated, parental level of
education ranged from middle school to postgraduate degrees. The major
ity of mothers (88.5%) were not employed at the time of the study, and
those who were employed (η = 6) worked on average 16.9 hours per week
outside the home (SD = 11.23, range = 9.00-37.50).
Procedure
Prior to data collection, the mother was instructed that the filmer was
interested in observing her and her infant going about their usual activi
ties at a time when the mother was at home and solely responsible for the
baby. Observation visits were scheduled at times that were optimal for the
baby. Dyads were videotaped by a single female filmer for 1 hour in the
home setting when the infant was awake. The mother was asked to go
about her normal routine in the home and to disregard the filmer insofar
as possible. Mothers were asked not to have other people present in the
home during the visit. These naturalistic observations encompassed a
variety of routine mother-infant daily activities, such as feeding, diaper
ing, bathing, soothing, and joint play as well as maternal housekeeping
tasks. A second visit to the dyad's home was conducted in the same man
ner about 1 week following the first visit (M = 6.33 days, SD = 2.50). At
the conclusion of each visit, both mother and filmer independently evalu
ated the observation session.
Assessments
availability. Emotional availability in the mother-infant

Emotional
dyad during each session was evaluated from the videotaped observations
using the Emotional Availability Scales: Infancy to Early Childhood Ver
sion (EAS 3rd ed.; Biringen et al., 1998). The scales consist of six dimen
sions concerned with emotional regulation in the parent-child dyad. Four
dimensions address the emotional availability of the mother in relation to
the child (sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness, and nonhostility), and
two address the emotional availability of the child in relation to the mother

(responsiveness and involving). The maternal sensitivity scale was inspired

by Ainsworth (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stay ton, 1974) and is designed to assess
the parent's contingent responsiveness to child communications, appropri
ate affectivity, acceptance, flexibility, clarity of perceptions, affect regula
tion, conflict resolution, and variety and creativity in play displayed toward
the child. Maternal structuring assesses the degree to which the mother
appropriately facilitates, scaffolds, or organizes her child's play, explo
ration, or routine by providing rules, regulations, and a supportive frame
work for interaction without compromising the child's autonomy. Maternal
nonintrusiveness measures the degree to which the mother is able to sup
port her child's play, exploration, or routine by waiting for optimal breaks
before initiating interactions, without interrupting the child by being
overdirective, overstimulating, overprotecting, and/or interfering. Maternal
nonhostility measures the degree to which the mother is able to talk to or
behave with her child in a way that is generally patient, pleasant, and har
monious and not rejecting, abrasive, impatient, or antagonistic. Child
responsiveness focuses on the child's age- and context-appropriate ability
and interest in exploring on his or her own and in responding to the
mother's bids (i.e., the balance between closeness and autonomy) as well
as on the extent of the child's enjoyment of the interaction. Child involving
assesses the child's ability and willingness to engage the mother in interac
tion (see Biringen, 2000; Easterbrooks & Biringen, 2000).
Consistent with the adaptation of the EA framework for younger
infants and their parents (Biringen et al., 1998, pp. 48-52), dyadic interac
tions were rated using the scales of maternal sensitivity, ranging from 1
(highly insensitive) to 9 (highly sensitive); maternal structuring, ranging

from 1 (non-optimal) to 5 (optimal); maternal nonintrusiveness, ranging
from 1 (intrusive) to 5 (nonintrusive); maternal nonhostility, ranging from 1
(markedly hostile) to 5 (nonhostile); as well as infant responsiveness, rang
ing from 1 (non-optimal) to 7 (optimal). Due to the length and the naturalis
tic nature of the real-life observations, the infant's involving behaviors
directed to mother were relatively salient and diverse as compared to inter
actions commonly assessed in shorter or more structured settings with very
young infants (e.g., Biringen et al., 1999). Therefore, in addition to the five
Emotional Availability Scales commonly used in this age range, this design
enabled us to apply the scale of infant involving (see also Zimmerman &
McDonald, 1995), ranging from 1 (non-optimal) to 7 (optimal). More com
plete descriptions of the scales can be found in Biringen and Robinson
( 1991 ) and Biringen (2000).
To code the hour-long mother-infant interaction, the session was
divided into four equal successive 15-minute segments. Coders rated each

of the four segments consecutively on all Emotional Availability Scales.

Finally, an overall score, which took into account the entire mother-infant
interaction as it unfolded throughout the session, was assigned for each
scale. Eight coders were firsttrained on the Emotional Availability Scales

to obtain satisfactory interrater reliability with one of the authors of the
scales on 12 cases (7 cases provided by the scale's author and 5 from our
sample of naturalistic observations). Interrater reliability was assessed
using average absolute agreement intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs)
in a two-way random effects model (McGraw & Wong, 1996). Ranges of
ICCs for each scale across coders were as follows: sensitivity, .87-97
(Mdn = .93); structuring, .75-96 (Mdn = .84); nonintrusiveness, .80-.92
(Mdn = .85); nonhostility, .70-.82 (Mdn = .76); responsiveness, .86-.97
(Mdn = .93); and involving, .82-98 (Mdn = .91).
Coders independently rated interactions from Visit 1 and Visit 2; each
coder coded approximately the same number of Visit 1 and Visit 2 interac
tions, and no coder coded interactions of the same dyad in the two different
visits. Therefore, coders were blind to the behavior and the ratings of their
assigned dyads in the other visit. Coders were also blind to hypotheses and
purposes of the study and to additional information about the dyads. Inter
rater reliabilities based on 23% of the interactions coded for the present
study (10 Visit 1 and 14 Visit 2 interactions) were performed routinely and
were calculated between pairs of coders for ratings on each scale using
average absolute agreement ICCs in a two-way random effects model; they

were as follows: sensitivity, .92; structuring, .80; nonintrusiveness, .83;
nonhostility, .79; responsiveness, .84; and involving, .85. Any residual dif
ferences between coders were resolved by discussion, and consensus rat
ings were used for subsequent analyses ( 18 individual consensus ratings

were used, which constituted 3.0% of all ratings used).
To examine the stability and continuity of dyads across time from the
variable perspective, a dyadic EA score was computed as the average of (1)
the mean of standardized (M = 0, SD = 1) mother scales (sensitivity, struc
turing, nonintrusiveness, and nonhostility) and (2) the mean of standard
ized child scales (responsiveness and involving). Items were standardized
because they varied from 5- to 9-point scales, and we wanted each item to
have equal weight. Cronbach's α reliability, based on the 6 scales, was .91.
Evaluation of the visits. As a check against threats to validity of the natu
ralistic observations, at the conclusion of both home visits ("1" and "2") the
mother and the filmer independently evaluated the observation session by
marking a series of 8-point (range = 0 to 7) graphic rating scales, randomly
ordered with respect to valence but recoded in ascending order. According to
the filmer's evaluations, mothers were relaxed (M¡ = 5.6, SD¡ = 1.3; M2 = 5.8,

= 1.2) and did not engage in activities that appeared to be preplanned

SD2 (M¡
= 1.3, = 1.5; M, = 1.3, = 1.5), and infants were not fussy = 2.0,
SDj SD2 (M;
SD ! = 1.6; M2 = 2.4, .S'D, = 1.9). Mothers also reported that they felt relatively
comfortable being videotaped (M¡ — 5.1, SD t = 1.3; M2 = 5.0, SD2 = 1.5) and
that they played with their child (M¡ = 3.7, SDj = 0.9; M? = 3.6, SDn = 0.6)
and spent time with their child (M: = 3.6, SD¡ = 0.6; M2 = 3.7, SD2 = 0.7)
during the visit neither more nor less than usual. Mothers reported that their
child's behavior (M; = 5.4, SD ¡ = 1.4; M2 - 5.5, SD1 = 1.4) and their own {M¡
= 4.8, = 1.4; = = 1.6) during each visit were characteristic of
Sí)l M2 5.0, SD2
their normal routine. Paired /-tests revealed no significant differences
between visits on these variables. These data suggest that our observations
were broadly representative of the dyads' usual interactions.
Results
Results are presented in four sections. The firstand second sections provide
descriptive statistics and intercorrelations for EA variable ratings for each
visit, respectively. The third section explores stability by presenting bivari
ate individual and dyadic variable analyses linking Emotional Availability
Scales from Visit 1 with their corresponding scales from Visit 2 and person
cluster analyses of mothers, infants, and dyads on EA. The fourth section
examines continuity employing paired-comparisons of individual and

dyadic variable scale means.
Prior to any analyses, distributions of the six individual Emotional Avail

ability Scales and the dyadic EA scores from both visits were examined for
normalcy and outliers. Maternal scales of nonintrusiveness and nonhostility
at both visits were distributed as noncontinuous variables and showed signif
icantly skewed distributions, all ps < .05. These variables did not satisfy the
normalcy assumptions and were therefore treated as ordinal (rather than
interval) variables. The noncontinuous nature of the nonintrusiveness and
nonhostility scales is not surprising. These two scales were designed to cap
ture specific types of negative behaviors that should be uncommon in a low
risk, socioeconomically diverse sample. In addition, no gender differences
were found for any of the Emotional Availability Scales or clusters; therefore,
the data are reported for boys and girls combined.
Descriptive Statistics for the Emotional Availability Scales
Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for each of the Emotional Availability

Scales and the dyadic EA score separately for Visit 1 and Visit 2. (Cluster
means are presented later.) Examination of the data shows all EA measures

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had reasonable representation of most of the potential range as defined by

the scales, indicating that in the context of an hour's observation it was pos
sible to discern individual differences in all scales among mothers and
infants as young as 5 months. These findings compare favorably with scale

ratings of other published observations (e.g., Kogan & Carter, 1996). More
over, given few low EA ratings, these data indicate that our sample of moth
ers and infants can be generally characterized as normal and low-risk in
terms of emotional availability.
Intercorrelations Among the Emotional Availability Scales
Intercorrelations among Emotional Availability Scales are presented sepa
rately for each home visit in Table 2. As can be seen, all scales were signifi
cantly positively correlated. These intercorrelations resemble those
reported in previous studies employing the Emotional Availability Scales
framework (e.g., Ziv, Sagi, Gini, Karie-Koren, & Joels, 1996; Ziv, Aviezer,
Gini, Sagi, & Koren-Karie, 2000; for a review see Biringen, 2000).
Short-Term Stability of Emotional Availability From Visit 1 to Visit 2
Results pertaining to the short-term stability of EA across the two home vis
its are presented in two steps. First, we present bivariate correlational
analyses between ratings of the individual Emotional Availability Scales
and the dyadic EA scores from Visit 1 and their corresponding ratings from
Visit 2 qua variables. In the second step, we considered EA in person analy
ses for mothers and infants separately and then in a dyadic analysis.
Variable analysis. In Table 1, the "r" column summarizes variable level
correlations and the "r*" column displays correlations that have been cor
rected for attenuation due to interrater variation (Nunnally, 1987). For

maternal sensitivity and structuring, child responsiveness and involving,
and the dyadic EA score, Pearson's Product-moment correlation coeffi
cients (r) were calculated. For maternal nonintrusiveness and nonhostility,

Spearman's Rank-Order correlation coefficients (rs) were computed. All
Emotional Availability Scales from Visit 1 were related significantly to
their corresponding scales from Visit 2. These results suggest that individ
ual and dyadic Emotional Availability Scales qua variables are moderately
to strongly stable across the 1 week that separated the two home visits
(Cohen, 1988).
Person analysis. Emotional Availability Scales for the two visits were
subjected to the SPSS TwoStep Cluster Analysis procedure (Chiù, Fang,
Chen, Wang, & Jeris, 2001; SPSS, Inc., 2001), treating the sensitivity.

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structuring, responsiveness, and involving scales as continuous, and the
nonintrusiveness and nonhostility scales as noncontinuous. For each analy

sis we pooled the mothers, infants, or dyads across the two visits so that the
resulting clusters would be comparable across time. Three clusters were
specified for each of the three cluster analyses (maternal, infant, and
dyadic), and means for the resulting clusters are depicted separately for
each visit in Figures 1-3. We specified three clusters a priori because theo
retically these scales have an underlying distribution consistent with low,
medium, and high EA (i.e., "maladaptive," "inconsistent," and "adaptive"
ranges; Biringen et al., 1998). Employing this person approach, we empiri
cally identified mothers, infants, and dyads as belonging to one of three
clusters: (1) low EA, (2) medium EA, and (3) high EA.
Associations among these EA clusters across the two visits for moth
ers, infants, and dyads are set out in the three parts of Table 3. Fifty-eight
percent of mothers showed stability in their cluster membership over the
1-week interval, Kendall's tau-b = .41, ρ < .001; 50% of infants showed
□ Low EA
□ Average EA
■ High EA
Visit 1 Visit 2
Nonhostility
Figure 1. Mother EA three-cluster means derived at 5 months and tests of differences
among clusters (N = 52). All F tests were significant at ρ < .05. Cluster means with similar
superscripts (a, b, c) were not different from each other in post hoc Scheffé tests.

9.00
□ Low EA
□ Average EA
8.00
■ HighEA
7.00
6.00
£ 5.00
o
Λ
¡u 4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
Visiti Visit 2 Visiti Visit 2
Responsiveness Involving
Infant Clusters
Figure 2. Infant EA three-cluster means derived at 5 months and tests of differences among
clusters (N = 52). All F tests were significant at ρ < .05. Cluster means with similar
superscripts (a, b, c) were nof different from each other in post hoc Scheffé tests.
stability in their cluster membership, Kendall's tau-b = .30 ,p< .05; and 48%
of the dyads showed stability in their cluster membership, Kendall's tau-b =
.34, < .01. These results that maternal, infant, and EA clus
ρ suggest dyadic
ters qua persons were modestly stable across the I week that separated the
two visits. Tau is an aggregated statistic because it describes stability for the
entire sample rather than for individual cluster memberships. As a follow-up
to tau-b"s global assessment of stability, we therefore performed three more
selective and conservative first-order configurai frequency analyses (von

Eye, 2002) using Lehmacher's test with Kiichenhoff's continuity correction
on the mother, infant, and dyadic clusters. For this assessment of stability
(e.g., stability in low, medium, and high clusters) we focused on whether the
diagonals in Table 3 contained significantly more participants than expected,
so a Bonferroni corrected α level of .0166 (.05/3) was used. For the mother
and dyadic cluster memberships, only the high EA clusters were stable (e.g.,

□ Low EA
□Average EA
■ High EA
Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 1 Visit 2 Visit 1 Visit 2
Sensitivity Structuring Nonintrusiveness Nonhostility Responsiveness Involving
Dyadic Clusters
Figure 3. Dyadic EA three-cluster means derived at 5 months and tests of differences

among clusters (N = 52). All F tests were significant at ρ < .05. Cluster means with similar
superscripts (a, b, c) were not different from each other in post hoc Scheffé tests.
contained significantly more dyads than expected), z'L = 3.03,ρ = .001, and
= 2.98, ρ = .001, respectively. For the infant cluster memberships, only
z'L
the low EA cluster was stable, z'L = 2.46, ρ = .007.
Short-Term Continuity of the Emotional Availability

Scales From Visit 1 to Visit 2
To test whether the Emotional Availability Scales maintained the same

mean level across the two visits, each scale and the dyadic EA score qua
variables were subjected to paired-comparison analyses. Paired f-tests were
employed for scales that satisfied the normality assumptions (i.e., sensitiv
ity, structuring, responsiveness, involving, and dyadic EA), and their non
parametric equivalent, the Wilcoxon two-sample paired Signed-Ranks test,
was used for scales that did not satisfy these assumptions (i.e., nonintru
siveness and nonhostility). Table 1 ("<" column) presents the results of these

Table 3. Distributions of Mother, Infant, and Dyad Clusters Across Visits
A. Count of Mothers Across Emotional Availability Clusters Between Visit 1 and
Visit 2 at Age 5 Months = 5

(N 2)
Visit2
Visit 1 Low EA Medium EA High EA Total
Low EA 4 5 1 10
Medium EA 3 10 4 17
High EA 3 6 16 25
Total 10 21 21 52
Note. Mothers who maintained the same cluster membership (58%) are on the diagonal.
B. Count of infants Across Emotional Availability Clusters Between Visit 1 and Visit 2
at Age 5 Months (N
= 52)
Visit2
Low EA 10 4 3 17
Medium EA 5 11 6 22
High EA 2 6 5 13
Total 17 21 14 52
Note. Infants who maintained the same cluster membership (50%) are on the diagonal.
C. Count of Dyads Across Emotional Availability Clusters Between Visit 1 and Visit 2
at Age 5 Months (N
= 5 21
Visit 2
Low EA 4 7 2 13
Medium EA 6 5 4 15
High EA 4 4 16 24
Total 14 16 22 52
Note. Dyads who maintained the same cluster membership (48%) are on the diagonal.
General Note. Bold numbers indicate stable clusters in configurai frequency analysis.

analyses. As can be seen in Table 1, all paired comparisons suggested that

mean ratings of Emotional Availability Scales did not differ between the
two visits. Given the small effect sizes ("d/CI" column), these results are
consistent with the notion of continuity of EA qua variables over the short
term. Continuity from the person perspective was not computed because
there were no "person" means to compare across time.
Discussion
This study of mother and child emotional availability had two intercon
nected goals: to explore the construct of EA from variable and person per
spectives and to determine the short-term stability and continuity of
mothers' and children's EA from individual and dyadic scale or variable
and from holistic person or dyad perspectives. We also examined gender
differences in EA. Addressing these measurement issues is fundamental to
validity aspects of socioemotional research in child and parent develop
ment. Despite an increased understanding of socioemotional function in
young children, their parents, and their relationships, basic methodological
questions are still unanswered. Is EA in the dyad stable over a short-term
period of time? Does it maintain level? How do these psychometric proper
ties of EA function from variable versus person perspectives? Understand
ing individual differences is also central to elucidating the nature of child
socioemotional development within the context of mother-child relation
ships. In this study we explored individual differences in EA using two lev
els of analysis: (1) at the individual and dyadic level using the Emotional
Availability Scales qua variables, focusing on children's EA vis-à-vis their
mothers and mothers' EA vis-à-vis their children; and (2) at the individual
and dyadic level using EA cluster memberships qua persons. The latter
approach represents an attempt to use specific combinations of scales to
explore E A at a more global level consistent with the organizational

approach in which phenomena such as early attachment are assessed
(Sroufe & Waters, 1977). Adopting a person approach to the Emotional
Availability Scales constitutes a novel contribution to the field, as it casts
the individual or dyad as the basic unit of measurement.
With respect to these goals, we found moderate and significant stability
of mothers', infants', and dyads' EAover approximately a 1-week interval
when infants were 5 months of age. Thus, individual differences in EA qua
variable and person appear to reflect characteristics that are part of the
dyad. Furthermore, we found that mother, infant, and dyadic EA did not
change in mean level across the same short-term (1-week) period of time.
These continuity findings reinforce the notion of dyadic consistency in EA.

Together, the results point to the robustness of EA in terms of short-term
stability (individual or dyad rank order) and continuity (group mean level).
In the light of these results, the lack of stability sometimes observed in EA
may reflect longer inter-test intervals (e.g., mediating possible effects of
accumulated life-events), changes in venue, or real developmental change.
In addition, and in agreement with other studies employing the Emotional
Availability Scales (e.g., Ziv et al., 2000), in our study dyadic EA did not
differ between mother-daughter and mother-son pairs from either the per
son or variable perspective.
The findings pertaining to the stability and continuity of EA cluster
memberships suggest that the methods employed in this study are plausible
and valid, and may serve as a firststep toward identifying dyadic patterns in
a person approach to EA. This step might prove valuable for researchers
employing the Emotional Availability Scales who wish to relate to the con
struct of EA from a global dyadic perspective rather than from the perspec
tive of separate individuals (e.g., mother and child). For example, Aviezer,
Sagi, Joels, and Ziv (1999) reported associations among infant-mother
attachment (assessed with the Strange Situation procedure; Ainsworth, Ble
har, Waters, & Wall, 1978), mothers' state of mind in relation to attachment
(assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview; George, Kaplan, & Main,
1985), and dyadic EA for separate scales. It would be interesting to see
whether similar patterns obtain for dyadic clusters of mother-child EA.
With respect to the level of reliability we found, short-term test-retest
stability of attachment classifications as measured with Ainsworth's
Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth et al., 1978) are generally high
(50%-96% maintaining their attachment classification) in middle-class
samples when the assessments are performed 2 to 6 months apart. Lower
stability measures are obtained when the time between measurements

ranges between 2 and 4 weeks, presumably reflecting sensitization of
infants to the separation procedure (Solomon & George, 1999). Results of
our study at the person level compare favorably with this general estimate.
Furthermore, some of the variation we observed in EA stability estimates

may be due to the restricted range of the variables. For example, the stabil
ity estimates for the nonintrusiveness and nonhostility scales were compar
atively lower than those for the other scales. The narrow range of scores on
these variables may have attenuated the possible magnitude of our stability
coefficients (Nunnally, 1978).
Although Stern (1911), Lewin (1935), and Allport (1937) contrasted
person approaches with variable approaches in the firsthalf of the twentieth
century, Block ( 1971 ) was probably the firstinvestigator to use the term per
son approach in describing the theoretical framework for his application of

the Q-sort technique to studying individual differences. Magnusson (1998)

further defined the value of person-based vis-à-vis variable-based analyses
to identify operating factors and aid in the formulation of model-based pat
tern analyses. He argued that a dynamic, complex process cannot be under
stood by simply summing the results of single aspects studied in isolation

from each other. Rather, he suggested that a totality has properties that can
not be derived from the investigation of one variable after the other. "With
reference to the goal for psychological research—namely, to understand and
explain how and why individuals think, feel, act, and react as they do in real
life—a great advantage of the person approach is that generalizations of
empirical results refer to persons, not to variables" (Magnusson, 1998,
p. 51). "In the variable approach, measurement is basically based on the
assumption that individuals take on positions on latent dimensions for the
relevant factors" (Magnusson, 1998, p. 61).
How similar or different are the variable and person approaches?
Magnusson (1998) asserted that there is a fundamental distinction between
a variable-oriented analytic approach and a person-oriented analytic
approach. The datum in variable-oriented analytic approaches is the dis
tance of the individual from one or more measures of central tendency in a
group (e.g., deviations from means on multiple variables, residuals from a

regression line, etc.). In a person-oriented approach the datum is the dis
tance of the individual from a multidimensional measure of central ten
dency in the group (e.g., distance from group centroids on multiple
dimensions). In both cases, the datum is a measure of the distance of an
individual from the group.
One criticism of many inductive techniques, such as cluster analysis, is
that they aggregate cases into subgroups even when these subgroups are not
distinctive. In this sense, cluster analysis can be viewed as the multivariate
extension of a median split, wherein a single continuous distribution is arti

ficially rendered into two groups. The consequence of performing a median
split is that graded differences between individuals are more crudely repre
sented in a dichotomy and, as a result, correlations with other variables may
be attenuated (Cohen, 1983). At issue is whether individual differences
reflect the presence of several qualitatively distinct patterns or whether they
are simply quantitative variations of one fundamental pattern. In the former
case clustering is justified, and in the latter case it is not. There are a number
of heuristics to guide the decision to perform clustering procedures, but
they remain partially subjective. At a global level, deductive and inductive
approaches provided similar information.
Although the variable and person approaches are equally valid and
revealing, the variable approach has received much greater attention. An

important example of this difference is in the level of sophistication and

sheer number of statistical procedures available to the variable approach
and the relative crudeness and paucity of procedures that can be applied to
the person approach. Although cluster analysis is an insightful descriptive
tool, cluster memberships vary greatly by the method employed, the dis
tance measure used, and the number of clusters specified (Aldenderfer &
Blashfield, 1984). Our ability to characterize relations among variables and
to classify people goes hand in hand with the evolving statistical proce
dures available for our use. As the methods that apply to the person
approach become more refined, so we suspect will our ability to more accu
rately describe and explain patterns evident in human interaction. Most
investigators in this area adopt the variable-centered approach, so our
person-centered treatment should stimulate new avenues of inquiry.
Because previous studies were not specifically oriented to explore the
psychometric properties of the Emotional Availability Scales, relevant data
have not been reported systematically for all the scales. Particularly lacking
are reports about maternal nonhostility, and more notably about maternal
nonintrusiveness as a dimension separate from maternal structuring—a dis
tinction that was introduced only in the third edition of the Emotional Avail
ability Scales (Biringen et al., 1998), which we used here. In the present
study we found it possible to rate 5-month-old infants' involving behavior
because of the (1 hour) length and the (naturalistic) quality of our observa
tions. Previous studies with infants this young have been unable to rate this
domain of EA due to restrictions introduced by the procedures employed
(e.g., Kogan & Carter, 1996; Ziv et al., 1997). In this respect, our procedures
and findings support Biringen's (2000) notion that longer interactions at this
age provide more substantial information to rate this scale of EA.
This study establishes the short-term psychometric properties of the
Emotional Availability Scales from individual and person perspectives for
mothers, infants, and dyads. Insofar as dimensions of maternal sensitivity,
structuring, nonintrusiveness, and nonhostility and of infant responsiveness
and involving are stable and show the same mean level over a short time
interval, the significance of emotional availability as a socioemotional con

struct and as a global measure of mother-child interaction is reinforced. As
is true for all analytic techniques, it is important to replicate the primary
findings of the cluster analysis on an independent sample, which we have
done (Bornstein et al., 2006). Contrasting clusters with scores derived from
summing or averaging the maternal and child scales would also be mean
ingful and would provide important data to guide future use of the scales. In
addition, cluster analysis should be validated on some external criterion,
preferably through the prospective prediction of later behavior. Our next

steps look to the predictive and cross-cultural validity of individual differ

ences in Emotional Availability Scales (qua variable) and EA patterns (qua
person) in this critical area of mother-child relationships.
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Emotional Availability in Mother-Child Dyads: Short-Term Stability and Continuity From

Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Perspectives

This content downloaded from 128.122.253.212 on Sun, 15 Feb 2015 19:20:24 PM

Emotional Availability in Mother-Child Dyads:

Marc H. Bornstein, Motti Gini, Joan T. D. Suwalsky, Diane L. Putnick, and

Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health

Emotional availability (EA) is a prominent index of socioemotional adaptation in

ological study shows significant short-term stability and continuity in EA as meas

Emotional availability (EA; Emde, 1980; Emde & Easterbrooks, 1985) is a

extend social interaction, and to mark important dyadic events (Martin,

We thank E. Beatty, S. Bottjer, R. Chang, M. Chatham, D. Falk, M. Heslington, Κ. Hill,

This content downloaded from 128.122.253.212 on Sun, 15 Feb 2015 19:20:24 PM

The Emotional Availability Scales (Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1998)

clusters of individuals or dyads.

single variables, combinations of variables, or relations among variables as

processes in individual functioning and development is studied in terms of

This content downloaded from 128.122.253.212 on Sun, 15 Feb 2015 19:20:24 PM

dynamic complex process is not understood by summing the results of sin

person approach uses methods that focus on patterns or configurations of

values in variables in individuals

This content downloaded from 128.122.253.212 on Sun, 15 Feb 2015 19:20:24 PM

Stability and continuity reflect different realms of development, and

time (increase or decrease): "stable-and-discontinuous." And so forth, for

There are fundamental reasons to evaluate both stability and continuity

membership through time in EA informs not only about variation in EA but

Whether mothers, infants, or dyads as a group remain the same or change

broadly interested not only in manifestations and quality of functions and

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Taken together, these findings raise two psychometric questions. First,

tively long intervals between assessments or changes in venue. Further

more, in interpreting the Emotional Availability Scales, it is crucial to know

brief interval would indicate that this system is sensitive to temporal

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view in mothers, infants, and mother-infant dyads. In the present study we

Altogether 52 primiparous mothers and their 5-month-old infants (29 girls,

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of SES (Four-Factor Index of Social Status; Hollingshead, 1975; M =

availability. Emotional availability in the mother-infant

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(responsiveness and involving). The maternal sensitivity scale was inspired

(highly insensitive) to 9 (highly sensitive); maternal structuring, ranging

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of the four segments consecutively on all Emotional Availability Scales.

scale. Eight coders were firsttrained on the Emotional Availability Scales

average absolute agreement ICCs in a two-way random effects model; they

ings were used for subsequent analyses ( 18 individual consensus ratings

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= 1.2) and did not engage in activities that appeared to be preplanned

examines continuity employing paired-comparisons of individual and

Prior to any analyses, distributions of the six individual Emotional Avail

interval) variables. The noncontinuous nature of the nonintrusiveness and

Descriptive Statistics for the Emotional Availability Scales

Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for each of the Emotional Availability

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had reasonable representation of most of the potential range as defined by

infants as young as 5 months. These findings compare favorably with scale

ers and infants can be generally characterized as normal and low-risk in

terms of emotional availability.