Recent research has revealed gender differences in emotional communication and affect regulation during early mother-child interactions that are consistent with later gender differences in relational behavior. The current study extends those findings to father-child interactions. Parent-toddler dyads were videotaped during quiet indoor play when the toddlers were 19 and 24 months old. The observations were coded with Biringen, Robinson, and Emde's (1998) Emotional Availability scales (3rd ed.), which yields scores for parent sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness, and nonhostility, and for child responsiveness to and involvement of the parent. Analyses of mean differences revealed a consistent pattern of larger parent than child gender differences. Dyadic analyses revealed more complex results. Mother-daughter dyads displayed the highest scores, followed by mother-son, then father-daughter, and finally father-son dyads for all variables but hostility, which by 24 months was higher in same-sex than in opposite-sex dyads. Scores for father-son dyads more often fell below the scale point indicating "good enough" parenting than scores for other dyads. The inclusion of fathers in the sample extends previous findings both by eliciting an increased range of variation within child gender and by providing a first look at the emotional availability of fathers relative to that of mothers.

Despite widespread use of self-report measures of adult attachment, relatively little research has explored the predictive utility of these measures in the domain of parent-child relationships. The present study examined the association between self-reported attachment style and parental responsiveness during a stressful event. Children and their parents were observed while children received an inoculation at a county immunization clinic. Children's reactions to the inoculation were rated and parents' responsiveness was assessed with the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS). Results revealed that children of parents scoring high on self-reported attachment avoidance were more distressed during the inoculation than children of parents scoring low on avoidance. Moreover, parents high on avoidance were less responsive when children were highly distressed, whereas this pattern was reversed among parents scoring low on avoidance. Finally, the influence of adult attachment on parental behavior and children's distress was found to be independent of children's temperament and parental personality. These findings suggest that self-report adult attachment measures may be useful in the domain of parent-child relationships.

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The study examined parent, child, and dyadic gender effects in parent reports of words and MLUs. Mothers and fathers from 113 families completed the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Toddlers when the toddlers were 1;7; half completed a follow-up at 2;0. Child gender differences in words and MLUs increased over time and parent gender differences decreased. Dyadic analyses revealed bidirectional influences. At 1;7, dyadic scores for words and MLUs displayed a descending pattern from mother—daughter, to mother—son, to father—daughter, to father—son dyads. At 2;0, the most and fewest words were reported in mother—daughter and mother—son dyads, respectively; and the longest and shortest MLUs in father—daughter and father—son dyads, respectively. The data raise questions about the ‘bridge hypothesis.’ They suggest that fathers are more likely to provide a bridge for daughters than for sons; daughters may play an active role in eliciting this behavior.

Maternal attachment representations were assessed using the George, Kaplan, and Main (1985) Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and emotional availability during observed mother-child interactions was assessed using the third edition of the Emotional Availability (EA) Scales (Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1998). This edition of EA included four parental scales and two child scales (Maternal Sensitivity, Structuring, Nonintrusiveness and Nonhostility; and Child Responsiveness and Child Involvement). Separate Hierarchical Multiple Regressions (HMRs) were computed to examine the prediction of the separate EA dimensions from demographic information, the AAI classification, and AAI scales. These analyses indicated that each of the EA dimensions (with the exception of maternal nonintrusiveness and nonhostility) was predicted by the AAI classification and/or AAI scales. Using three-step HMRs, the strongest prediction was for maternal sensitivity where 54% of the total variance in maternal sensitivity was explained by maternal education, AAI classification, and AAI 'state of mind' scales. Maternal nonhostility was predicted by maternal education and gender of the child, with lower-income mothers and mothers of girls demonstrating greater hostility.