Abstract
Child healthy development is largely influenced by parent–child interaction and a secure parent–child attachment is predictively associated with positive outcomes in numerous domains of child development. However, the parent–child relationship can be affected by several psychosocial and socio-demographic risk factors that undermine its quality and in turn play a negative role in short and long term child psychological health. Prevention and intervention programs that support parenting skills in at-risk families can efficiently reduce the impact of risk factors on mother and child psychological health. This study examines predictors of mother–child interaction quality and child attachment security in a sample of first-time mothers with psychosocial and/or socio-demographic risk factors. Forty primiparous women satisfying specific risk criteria participated in a longitudinal study with their children from pregnancy until 18 month of child age. A multiple psychological and socioeconomic assessment was performed. The Emotional Availability Scales were used to measure the quality of emotional exchanges between mother and child at 12 months and the Attachment Q-Sort served as a measure of child attachment security at 18 months. Results highlight both the effect of specific single factors, considered at a continuous level, and the cumulative risk effect of different co-occurring factors, considered at binary level, on mother–child interaction quality and child attachment security. Implication for the selection of inclusion criteria of intervention programs that support parenting skills in at-risk families are discussed.
Highlights
Child physical and psychological development is largely influenced by parent–child relationship (Bornstein, 2002)
Risk factors were considered in binary fashion and for each of them, separate ANCOVAs were performed with Attachment Q-Sort (AQS) and emotional availability scales (EAS) scores as dependent variables, and each risk factor as between factor
Psychosocial risk factors, such as low family socio-economic status (SES) and maternal psycopathology, and socio-demographic risk factors, such as very young maternal age and single parenting, are among the most theoretically relevant and empirically investigated risk conditions. Results of this line of research are substantially coherent in identifying the detrimental effect of each factor, they point out to a complex cumulative model of risk according to which a single factor may not be influential itself whereas its predictive value might be moderated by the association with other risk conditions or by its degree of intensity (Belsky, 1984; Greenberg et al, 1993; Lyons-Ruth et al, 1993; Hubbs-Tait et al, 1996)
Summary
Child physical and psychological development is largely influenced by parent–child relationship (Bornstein, 2002). The aim of the present study was to examine the influence on dyadic emotional availability (EA; Biringen and Robinson, 1991; Biringen, 2000), as an index of mother–child interaction quality, and on child attachment security of different psychosocial and socio-demographic risk factors in at-risk families living in Northern Italy. Results in this direction may guide the selection of inclusion criteria for effective intervention programs that promote sensitive and responsive parenting in at-risk families
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