Emotional Availability Scale Among Three U.S. Race/Ethnic Groups

Della J Derscheid; Louis F Fogg; Wrenetha Julion; Mary E Johnson; Sharon Tucker; Kathleen R Delaney

doi:10.1177/0193945918776617

Emotional Availability Scale Among Three U.S. Race/Ethnic Groups

West J Nurs Res. 2018 May 1:193945918776617. doi: 10.1177/0193945918776617. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Della J Derscheid¹, Louis F Fogg², Wrenetha Julion², Mary E Johnson², Sharon Tucker³, Kathleen R Delaney²

Affiliations

¹ 1 Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
² 2 Rush University, Chicago, IL, USA.
³ 3 The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.

PMID: 29781393
DOI: 10.1177/0193945918776617

Abstract

This study used a cross-sectional design to conduct a subgroup psychometric analysis of the Emotional Availability Scale among matched Hispanic ( n = 20), African American ( n = 20), and European American ( n = 10) English-speaking mother-child dyads in the United States. Differences by race/ethnicity were tested ( p < .05) among (a) Emotional Availability Scale dimensions with ANOVA, and (b) relationships of Emotional Availability Scale dimensions with select Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System variables with Pearson correlation and matched moderated regression. Internal consistency was .950 (Cronbach's α; N = 50). No significant differences in the six Emotional Availability Scale dimension scores by race/ethnicity emerged. Two Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System behaviors predicted two Emotional Availability Scale dimensions each for Hispanic and African American mother-child dyads. Results suggest emotional availability similarity among race/ethnic subgroups with few predictive differences of emotional availability dimensions by specific behaviors for Hispanic and African American subgroups.

Keywords: African American; Emotional Availability Scale; European American; Hispanic; emotional availability; psychometric analysis; subgroup comparison.