Negative emotional reactivity and regulation in 12-month-olds following emotional challenge: Contributions of maternal-infant emotional availability in a low-income sample.

Abstract

We predicted that the quality of mother-infant play as measured by the second edition of the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS; Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1993) would be significantly associated with infant emotion regulation over and above infant emotional reactivity in response to an emotionally challenging event. Forty-five 12-month-old infants and their mothers participated in a play session and a protocol designed to elicit infant emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. Emotional reactivity (initial negative response to stress) was conceptualized as reflective of infant temperament while emotion regulation was expected to be associated with emotional availability (EA). Dyads were primarily African American (72%), unmarried (93%), and low income. When compared to most studies using the EAS, this sample was characterized by higher levels of nonoptimal EA in both children and mothers. The expectation that EA would be related to infant emotion regulation was supported. Greater maternal hostility was significantly associated with infant difficulty in regulating distress during an emotion challenge and marginally associated with difficulty in emotion regulation in the postchallenge conditions, over and above the impact of emotional reactivity. There also were trends for infants from less emotionally available dyads to be more likely to experience difficulties in emotion regulation during and after the emotional challenge condition than infants from more emotional available dyads, over and above reactivity.