Intervening on dyads with drug addicted mothers: the contribution of a residential community program in improving dyadic emotional availability.

Introduction: An increasingly larger amount of literature points out the detrimental effects that drug addiction can have both on parenting practices and child development. These dyads seem often characterized by dysfunctional early mother-child interactions which have often been associated to later developmental difficulties. Prompt interventions focused on the relationship seem, thus, necessary to prevent from later undesired outcomes. Method: The research aimed to assess the effectiveness of a residential community program in improving the quality of the dyadic relationship in a group of drug-addicted mothers and their children prenatally exposed to drugs. Since from admission in Therapeutic Community, the 25 dyads, with children aged between 2 and 24 months, were evaluated every three months during the first 15 months of stay in the facility. 20-minutes free play interactions were videotaped and assessed through the 4th edition of the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS - Biringen, 2008), six scales aimed at evaluating the global affective quality of adult-child emotional exchanges. Results: The results were controversial. Although there were changes in dyadic interactions, these changes seemed to be characteristic only of specific EA dimensions. Moreover, different patterns of mother-child emotional availability resulted associated with different patterns of change, suggesting that improvements resulted more difficult for the dyads that exhibited more difficulties at the beginning of the treatment. Conclusions: Addicted mothers and their children are at higher risk for experiencing difficulties during everyday interactions. Anyway an adequate sustain provided to the relationship could buffer interactive mismatches, enhancing parenting abilities and favoring better affective regulation. This research provides evidence of the possibility to partially support early mother-child interactions in drug-addicted mothers through a residential community program.