Baker B L, Heller T L, Henker B
Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2000 Oct;41(7):907-15.
Expressed Emotion (EE), a measure of the emotional climate of the family, predicts subsequent adjustment of adults with mental disorder (Leff & Vaughn, 1985). Despite the acknowledged importance of the family in childhood disorders, there have been relatively few studies of expressed emotion with adolescents and school-aged children and virtually none focused on preschoolers. The present study utilized the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) to examine how Expressed Emotion relates concurrently and longitudinally to child problem status in a community sample of 112 preschool-aged children. At preschool, the proportion of high EE increased significantly across three child groups: Comparison (8.1%), Borderline Problem (15.8%), and High Problem (41.2%); however, preschool EE was not predictive of subsequent child status at 1st grade. Expanded FMSS codes. tapping positive affect and worry about the child, were also related to child problem group at preschool and were predictive of subsequent child status at 1st grade. Because parents' stress and adjustment were also highly related to child problem group status, we examined whether the FMSS codes were essentially a proxy for these or whether they explained unique variance. In two stepwise regressions on preschool child group status (divided by total problems and by externalizing problems), maternal stress was the only variable to enter. Also, in predicting to 1st grade externalizing child group status, only maternal stress entered. Discussion focused on the extension of the EE construct and other FMSS coding to young children, and the need to recognize that to some extent these variables may reflect maternal stress and adjustment.
情感表达（EE）是衡量家庭情感氛围的一种方式，它能够预测患有精神障碍的成年人随后的适应情况（莱夫和沃恩，1985年）。尽管家庭在儿童期疾病中的重要性已得到公认，但针对青少年和学龄儿童的情感表达研究相对较少，而几乎没有研究关注学龄前儿童。本研究采用五分钟言语样本（FMSS），以考察在一个由112名学龄前儿童组成的社区样本中，情感表达如何与儿童的问题状况同时及纵向相关。在学龄前阶段，高情感表达的比例在三个儿童组中显著增加：对照组（8.1%）、边缘问题组（15.8%）和高问题组（41.2%）；然而，学龄前的情感表达并不能预测一年级时儿童的后续状况。扩展后的FMSS编码，即挖掘对孩子的积极情感和担忧，也与学龄前儿童的问题组相关，并能预测一年级时儿童的后续状况。由于父母的压力和适应情况也与儿童问题组状况高度相关，我们考察了FMSS编码本质上是否是这些因素的替代指标，或者它们是否解释了独特的方差。在对学龄前儿童组状况（按总问题和外化问题划分）进行的两步回归中，母亲的压力是唯一进入回归方程的变量。此外，在预测一年级外化儿童组状况时，只有母亲的压力进入回归方程。讨论集中在情感表达结构和其他FMSS编码在幼儿中的扩展，以及需要认识到在某种程度上这些变量可能反映了母亲的压力和适应情况。
