The emotional availability in mother-child and father-child interactions in families with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Emotional availability (EA) is a dyadic relationship construct that can be considered an index of emotional quality of parent-child interaction. Using this construct, some research showed that both parent and child components of EA reflect key aspects of the parent-child relationship, but there are few studies that investigated these aspects in families with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The present study addresses several specific issues about the emotional availability of parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Method: We observed free-play interactions of 40 children with ASD (chronological age = 41.6 months, SD = 12; M mental age = 30.9 months, SD = 13.3) playing separately with their mothers and fathers one by one. We coded each parent-child dyad using the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS, Biringen, 2008). Results: Findings showed that mothers and fathers were equally emotionally available to their children. There were no differences between the two in parents' EA scales nor in their associations with child level of functioning and severity of the symptoms. In addition, children showed similar mean levels of Responsiveness and Involvement in mother-child and father-child interactions. However, children's emotional availability was associated to their cognitive functioning and the severity of their symptoms. Conclusions: The emotional quality of dyadic interaction is equal in mother-child and father-child dyads in families of children with ASD. We discuss the clinical utility of the EA Scales for assessing relationship between parents and their children with ASD and we speculate the possible relevance of our findings on father-child relationship for future intervention studies involving fathers on par with mothers.