Emotional Availability Scales

The Emotional Availability Scales (EA Scales) measures the quality of parent-child or adult-child interactions. Emotional availability refers to “the adult’s ‘receptive presence’ to the child’s emotional signals” (Biringen and Easterbrooks, 2012). Created by Dr. Zeynep Biringen, Ph.D., in 1987, the instrument is currently in its 4th edition. The EA Scales consist of both adult and child subscales and can be completed in approximately 20 minutes.

Content

Sub-Category
Domains
Parent support,
Emotional support,
Sensitivity,
Cognitive,
Physical,
Social,
Affection,
Responsiveness,
Encouragement,
Positive Involvement,
Adult Involvement,
Child Involvement,
Positive Discipline,
Supervision,
Control,
Mother Responsiveness,
Infants
Languages
English

Administration Information

Length
20 minutes
Qualifications

3-day face-to-face, in vivo, group training or self-paced distance training using reading, lecture, and practice on 10 training videos required.

Access and Use

Price
Open Access
No
Use in Research

De Falco, S., Esposito, G., Venuti, P., & Bornstein, M. H. (2008). Fathers' play with their Down syndrome children. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research52(6), 490-502. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01052.x

McMahon, C. A., & Meins, E. (2012). Mind-mindedness, parenting stress, and emotional availability in mothers of preschoolers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly27(2), 245-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.08.002

Psychometrics

Scoring
Manual scoring
Psychometric References

Biringen, Z., & Easterbrooks, M. A. (2012). Emotional availability: concept, research, and window on developmental psychopathology. Development and psychopathology24(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579411000617

Psychometric Considerations

Psychometrics is the science of psychological assessment. A primary goal of EdInstruments is to provide information on crucial psychometric topics including Validity and Reliability – essential concepts of evaluation, which indicate how well an instrument measures a construct - as well as additional properties that are worthy of consideration when selecting an instrument of measurement.

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