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Emotional availability of adult interpersonal relationships questionnaire (EA-AIRQ): validation and implications for research and practice

Date

2017

Authors

Herndon, Erandi, author
Biringen, Zeynep, advisor
Harvey, Ashley, committee member
Henry, Kimberly, committee member

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Abstract

Emotional Availability (EA) is commonly known as a parent-child construct used to describe the level of healthy emotional connection in the dyadic relationships (Biringen et al., 2014). Stemming from John Bowlby's (Bowlby, 1969) work on attachment, EA provides a gauge to the level of parent's receptiveness to a child's emotional feedback, both positive and negative (Biringen et al., 2014). In addition to relationships between the parent and child, EA conceptually should be applicable to a wide array of relationships. This paper will define the construct of EA and its foundations in attachment theory. It will then focus on the development and validation of a brief EA Adult Interpersonal Relationships Questionnaire (EA-AIRQ). A total of 215 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers were administered this measure (with request for participants to complete the measure for 'friends' and then for 'romantic partners'). Participants also completed the measures of attachment and mental well being. The EA-AIRQ was composited in two ways: 1-unit-weighted, with each item equally weighted (by adding all items), and 2-regression-weighted, that is, from a factor analysis for friends and romantic partners separately with the aim of obtaining a one-factor solution. Correlations between these composites and the other administered measures revealed meaningful patterns. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.

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