Parental expressed emotion toward children: Prediction from early family functioning (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Family Psychology, 1996
As assessed from a 5-min speech sample, level of expressed emotion (EE) in parents significantly discriminated between families of 7-to 16-year-old children who were referred for mental health treatment and a nonclinical comparison group; however, both groups contained a relatively high proportion of high-EE families. Furthermore, EE independently predicted clinical-nonclinical group status when considered in conjunction with overall family functioning and level of psychological distress in mothers. Findings support the relevance of EE, although the measure showed poor specificity and an analysis of the components that comprise the EE index indicated that only certain components were pertinent. The need to reassess the meaning of the EE construct and strengthen its applicability for the general clinical population of children and families is discussed. The affective quality of the home environment has an important bearing on children's emotional health (Asarnow, Lewis, Doane,
Journal of Psychiatric Research, 1990
Expressed emotion (EE) refers to a set of emotional aspects of speech for which ratings have been derived. Seven independent studies have established that higher EE ratings in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia predict higher rates of relapse in these patients and two studies have established an association of higher EE in spouses with relapse of depression in their mate. There are no previous studies of parental EE as a predictor of childhood affective disorder or other disorders not in the schizophrenia spectrum. In this study we investigated the relationship between the level of maternal EE and the incidence of DSM-III affective disorder (major depression or mania or dysthymia), substance abuse, or conduct disorder in 273 children. We found that a higher degree of maternal expressed emotion was associated with a threefold increase in a child's risk (odds multiplier) for having at least one of the following diagnoses: depressive disorder (major depression or dysthymia), substance abuse, or conduct disorder. This increased risk acts in addition to the increased risk of child diagnosis associated with parental affective illness. Research and clinical implications are discussed.
Análise Psicológica
Research has demonstrated that maternal emotion regulation strategies (self-criticism and self-compassion), mental health, and family functioning impacts child functioning. Due to the paucity of studies, we aimed to analyze: (1) the associations between maternal emotion regulation strategies, psychopathological symptomatology, family functioning, and mother’s perceived child social and emotional behavior (SEB); (2) the differences in mother’s perceived child SEB, according to maternal, child and family characteristics; (3) the predictive role of maternal emotion regulation in mother’s perceived child SEB. A sample of 431 mothers (25-59 years), with children aged 4-17 years (55.5% male), answered the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale, and the Self-Compassion Scale. The results showed positive associations between self-criticism, ...
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2022
BackgroundHigh Expressed Emotion (HEE) has been identified as a risk factor for the exacerbation and course of mental illness. EE has been investigated as a caregiver's response to an offspring's problem behavior and pathology. The present meta-analysis regards EE from a transgenerational perspective and as one mechanism that might explain the transgenerational transmission of mental disorders.MethodWe identified a total of 13 studies relying on 16 independent samples of parent-child dyads of parents with a mental illness and healthy controls; these were included in our analysis. Results were synthesized into one effect size per sample; meta-regression on additional effects of parental diagnostic category, child mental illness, and child age were also applied.ResultsParents with a mental illness are classified as HEE significantly more often. Effects were established for high criticism, albeit of small size (OR = 1.45), although they become stronger whenever offspring exhibi...
Characteristics of Parents With High Expressed Emotion and Related Factors
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2018
This study aimed to clarify characteristics of parents with high expressed emotion (EE) and related factors among parents of adults with schizophrenia. In total, 73 of the 289 parents (25.3%) had high EE (Family Attitude Scale (FAS) score ≥ 60) and 216 (74.7%) had low EE (FAS score < 60). A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that high EE parents were more distressed (OR = 1.27; 95% CI 1.16-1.39) and experienced more physical violence from their adult children with schizophrenia (OR = 2.86; 95% CI 1.28-6.43); the children with schizophrenia had been hospitalized at time of survey (OR = 6.54; 95% CI 1.10-38.89) and were less likely to attend rehabilitation services (OR = 2.56; 95% CI 1.06-6.17). Practitioners need to provide crisis intervention, home-visiting services, and support services for parents during hospitalization of their children with schizophrenia.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 1994
Expressed emotion (EE) was examined, using the brief Five Minute Speech Sample measure, in families of (1) children with depressive disorders, (2) children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and (3) normal controls screened for the absence of psychiatric disorder. Consistent with the hypothesis of some specificity in the association between EE and the form of child disorder, rates of EE were significantly higher among families of depressed children compared to families of normal controls and families of children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Within the depressed group, the presence of a comorbid disruptive behavior disorder was associated with high levels of critical EE, underscoring the need to attend to comorbid patterns and subtypes of EE in future research.
Journal of clinical …, 2009
This study examined Expressed Emotion in the families of children and adolescents who were: (1) in a current episode of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), (2) in remission from a past episode of MDD, (3) at high familial risk for developing MDD, and (4) low-risk controls. Participants were 109 mother-child dyads (children ages 8-19). Expressed emotion was assessed using the Five Minute Speech Sample. Psychiatric follow-ups were conducted annually following the Five Minute Speech Sample assessment. Mothers of children with a current or remitted episode of MDD and at high risk for MDD were more likely to be rated high on Criticism than mothers of controls. There were no differences in critical expressed emotion among mothers of children in the current, remitted, or highrisk for depression groups. Higher initial critical expressed emotion was associated with a greater likelihood of having a future onset of a depressive episode in high-risk and depressed participants. Diagnostic groups did not differ in Emotional Overinvolvement. Findings suggest that expressed emotion that is critical in nature may be a relatively stable characteristic feature of the family environments of children with and at high-risk for depression, and may be important in understanding the onset and clinical course of child adolescent depressive disorders.
Maternal Affective Disorder and Children’s Representation of Their Families
Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2011
Children's perceptions of family relationship are related to their later emotional and social adjustment. This is of particular relevance in the context of family stressors such as maternal affective disorder. This study investigated the effects of maternal postnatal depression and anxiety on children's family representations. In our sample of postnatally depressed mothers we also explored marital conflict as mediator between maternal psychopathology and children's representations. Family drawings of 235 4-5 year-old children (93 control, 53 depressed and 89 anxious) were examined. When compared to controls, children of depressed, but not of anxious mothers, were more likely to draw themselves as less prominent than other family members and to represent a dysfunctional family, less likely to represent themselves with a happy face and showed a greater tendency of drawing bizarre pictures. Marital conflict mediated the association between maternal depression and dysfunctionality in drawings.
PloS one, 2017
This longitudinal study examined whether mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms predict, independently and interactively, children's emotional and behavioural problems. It also examined bi-directional associations between parents' expressed emotion constituents (parents' child-directed positive and critical comments) and children's emotional and behavioural problems. At time 1, the sample consisted of 160 families in which 50 mothers and 40 fathers had depression according to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Children's mean age at Time 1 was 3.9 years (SD = 0.8). Families (n = 106) were followed up approximately 16 months later (Time 2). Expressed emotion constituents were assessed using the Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample. In total, 144 mothers and 158 fathers at Time 1 and 93 mothers and 105 fathers at Time 2 provided speech samples. Fathers' depressive symptoms were concurrently associated with more child emotional problems when...