NCJ Number
219982
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 46 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2007 Pages: 1171-1178
Date Published
September 2007
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship between parental expressed emotion ("the extent to which family members express critical/hostile and emotionally over-involved attitudes and remarks toward a specific person") and adolescent self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITB), as well as potential mediators and moderators of this relationship.
Abstract
The study found that high parental expressed emotion (EE) was linked with each type of SITB assessed, i.e., suicidal thoughts, suicide plans, suicide attempts, and nonsuicidal self-injury. The analyses also found that one component of EE, parental criticism, was strongly associated with SITB; whereas, the other component, emotional over-involvement, did not have a strong link to SITB. Also, the relationship between EE and SITB was not explained by the presence of mental disorders. Further, the findings supported a moderation model in which the relationship between parental criticism and SITB was especially strong among adolescents with a self-critical attitude. Working with parents to lessen their EE behaviors in the home has proven effective in reducing patient relapse across a number of disorders and may be useful for youths at risk of self-injury as well. This study was conducted as part of a larger laboratory-based, case-control study of SITB. Adolescents and young adults ages 12 to 19 years old (n=36) were recruited from the community and local outpatient mental health clinics from 2004 to 2005. Parents of the adolescents completed the Five-Minute Speech Sample, a performance-based measure of EE, and adolescents completed interviews and rating scales that assessed SITB, mental disorders, and related constructs. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 57 references