Maternal Executive Functioning, Emotional Availability and Psychological Distress During Toddlerhood: A FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Executive functioning (EF) is one of the building blocks in parental caregiving behavior, and contextual variables have been reported to moderate the link between EF and caregiving behavior. Although psychological distress due to various factors is prevalent during early parenthood and is negatively associated with adult EF, it is not known whether psychological distress influences the maternal EF/caregiving link. This study explored the association between maternal EF and caregiving behavior (more specifically, Emotional Availability/EA), and whether single and cumulative maternal psychological distress domains moderated the EF/EA association in a general population sample of 137 Finnish birth cohort mothers with 2.5-year-old children. EF was measured with a composite of five computerized Cogstate tasks, EA with the Emotional Availability Scales, and three psychological distress domains with self-report questionnaires (depression: EPDS, anxiety: SCL-90, insomnia: AIS). Better EF was significantly associated with more positive, sensitive caregiving, but this association was no longer significant when controlling for education level. Neither individual nor cumulative distress domains moderated the EF/EA association significantly, although the observed moderation effects were in the expected direction. These findings suggest that EF should be recognized alongside socioemotional factors as variables that are associated with parental caregiving behavior during toddlerhood. Furthermore, if the non-significant moderation results are replicated, they indicate that mothers in community samples are not at great risk for psychological distress that would compromise their capacity to utilize their EF while caring for their child. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings, as well as to examine these associations among fathers and in samples that have higher levels of chronic stressors. Studies with more diverse samples in terms of distress levels and EF performance would provide further insight into early childhood parenting and its risk factors.

“She Took Care of Us and She Went Through a Lot”: Emotional Availability, Emotional Support, and Millennials’ Gendered Understandings of Parenting

In the United States, parenting pressures are growing for both mothers and fathers. Thus, it is important to investigate how younger generations may make sense of parenting in ways that could either reduce, or exacerbate, gender inequalities. In this article, interviews with 60 millennials discussing their experiences with their parents reveal that emotional support and emotional availability are key normative parenting expectations. However, disparate gender norms also factor into millennials’ stories about their parents’ efforts. These millennials often criticize fathers for sometimes being too absent, authoritarian, or ego-driven while they understand mothers as constrained by fathers’ bad behaviors yet still bound by expectations to be emotionally available and supportive in appropriately gendered ways. In millennials’ stories, emotional support and availability are seemingly gender neutral and millennials expect both fathers and mothers to live up to these expectations. However, broader structural gender norms challenge the apparent neutrality of parenting expectations.

Neurobiological Implications of Parent–Child Emotional Availability: A Review

Parental influences are important for a child’s behavior, overall adjustment, as well as cognitive/language development. New research is exploring how relationships with parents can influence a child’s neurobiological functioning and development. In this systematic review, our first aim is to describe how the caregiving environment influences these aspects of child development. The second and main aim is to review and recommend that the concept (and measurement) of “emotional availability” may provide a new window in this continued exploration. Emotional availability (EA) refers to the capacity of a dyad to share an emotionally healthy relationship. The EA Scales assess this construct using a multi-dimensional framework, with a method to measure the affect and behavior of both the child and adult partner (caregiver). In this review, we first provide an overview of child development research, with regards to stress physiology, neuroendocrine system, genetics and epigenetics, and brain mechanisms. We then summarize the results of specific EA research in these areas, and propose a theoretical model integrating these constructs. Finally, we offer areas for future research in this area.

Sacha Levy’s unorthodox kindness: Holby City’s medicine and pedagogy

Holby City (1999–present) is a stalwart of British television media. Since its conception in 1999, the show has continued to attract contemporary audiences who tune in to passively, and passionately, experience turbulent battles between life and death. However, the locus of interest is not on the patients within Holby’s wings, but rather the staff themselves; it is their emotional, psychological and pedagogical development which spurs the plot forward and grips viewer attention. Through the use of medical pedagogy, Holby City becomes a drama of perpetual Bildungsromane, where relationships between peers, mentors and mentees are under consistent pressure. Furthermore, this pedagogy does not merely ensure Holby City’s series continuation but becomes a site of transformation, challenging preconceived ideologies of toxic masculinity. This is never more apparent than in the character of Sacha Levy (Bob Barrett), whose emotional availability, vulnerability and religious spirituality directly challenge concepts of the self-destructive ‘burnt-out’ male medic. This article explores the character of Sacha Levy in Holby City, demonstrating how the show’s writers engage actively in research to directly confront stereotypes of toxic masculinity and Jewish underrepresentation in the contemporary medical drama.