Mother-Child Emotional Availability Across Cultures: Findings from Western and Non-Western Countries

Abstract

Positive emotional relationships between mothers and children are critical to children’s healthy development. Here, we review the literature on cross-cultural similarities and differences in emotional availability between mother and child. Although the research base for Western cultures is expanding, there is limited information available about emotional availability in non-Western cultures. Particularly lacking are cross-cultural studies in general, as well as intra-cultural studies on Asian and African cultures. Despite this lack, the existing literature nonetheless suggests that emotional availability is a broadly applicable construct and that typically functioning mother–child dyads (or pairs) score in the adaptive range on the Emotional Availability Scales regardless of culture. At the same time, small systematic variations in the emotional availability of mother-child dyads across cultures have been documented, enriching our understanding of emotional availability’s central but nuanced role across the broad range of human experience.KeywordsEmotional availabilityCultureMother-child interaction