Patterns of Emotional Availability between Mothers and Young Children: Associations with Risk Factors for Borderline Personality Disorder.

Abstract

Emotional availability (EA) characterizes a warm, close relationship between caregiver and child. We compared patterns (clusters) of EA on risk factors, including those for borderline personality disorder (BPD). We sampled 70 children aged 4 to 7 years from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, 51% of whose mothers had BPD. We coded filmed interactions for EA: mothers' sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, non-hostility, and children's responsiveness to, and involvement of, mothers. We additionally coded children's over-responsiveness and over-involvement. Using person-centered analyses, we identified four clusters: high-functioning, low-functioning, asynchronous (mothers above average on two of four dimensions, children below) and below average. Mothers in the low-functioning cluster had lower income, less social support, more of the borderline feature of negative relationships and more depression than did mothers in the high-functioning cluster. The children in the low-functioning group had more risk factors for BPD (physical abuse, neglect, and separation from, or loss of caregivers, and negative narrative representations of the mother-child relationship in their stories) than did children in the high-functioning group. The asynchronous group included older girls who were over-responsive and over-involving with their mothers in an apparent role reversal. Interventions targeting emotional availability may provide a buffer for children facing cumulative risks and help prevent psychopathology.