The impact of family environment on self-esteem and symptoms in early psychosis

Expressed emotion (EE) and self-esteem (SE) have been implicated in the onset and development of paranoia and positive symptoms of psychosis. However, the impact of EE on patients’ SE and ultimately on symptoms in the early stages of psychosis is still not fully understood. The main objectives of this study were to examine whether: (1) patients’ SE mediated the effect of relatives’ EE on patients’ positive symptoms and paranoia; (2) patients’ perceived EE mediated the effect of relatives’ EE on patients’ SE; (3) patients’ SE mediated between patients’ perceived EE and patients’ symptomatology; and (4) patients’ perceived EE and patients’ SE serially mediated the effect of relatives’ EE on patients’ positive symptoms and paranoia. Incipient psychosis patients (at-risk mental states and first-episode of psychosis) and their respective relatives completed measures of EE, SE, and symptoms. Findings indicated that: (1) patients’ perceived EE mediated the link between relatives’ EE and patients’ negative, but not positive, SE; (2) patients’ negative SE mediated the effect of patients’ perceived EE on positive symptoms and paranoia; (3) the association of relatives’ EE with positive symptoms and paranoia was serially mediated by an increased level of patients’ perceived EE leading to increases in negative SE; (4) high levels of patients’ distress moderated the effect of relatives’ EE on symptoms through patients’ perceived EE and negative SE. Findings emphasize that patients’ SE is relevant for understanding how microsocial environmental factors impact formation and expression of positive symptoms and paranoia in early psychosis. They suggest that broader interventions for patients and their relatives aiming at improving family dynamics might also improve patients’ negative SE and symptoms.

Child Sexual Abuse and the Moralization of Purity

Recent studies were able to associate disgust with the moral domain of purity, as well as a heightened sensitivity to disgust with sexual victimization. However, no empirical evidence has yet to document the exact relation between sexual victimization and its impact on the moralization of purity. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA) and the moral domain of purity, by means of judgments toward three different types of disgust: pathogen, sexual and moral. To test this, The Three Domains of Disgust Scale (TDDS) was given to both CSA participants (n = 29) and to a non-sexually abused population (N-SAP; n = 31). . Results have shown a statistically significant difference between the CSA and N-SAP groups on the combined dependent variables (i.e., pathogen, sexual and moral disgust). However, only the sexual disgust domain, out of the other two domains has been found to hold significance. Furthermore, consistent with previous empirical findings, similar gender patterns of moral judgments have been found between the two groups (i.e., CSA and N-SAP), though with a statistical significance only in the sexual domain. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Mother-adolescent emotion dynamics during conflicts: Associations with perspective taking

Parent-adolescent emotion dynamics are central to psychosocial adjustment during this developmental period. Perspective taking-the ability to take another's point of view into consideration-develops significantly during adolescence and is important for successful interpersonal functioning in contexts such as conflicts between family members. We used grid-sequence analysis (Brinberg, Fosco, & Ram, 2017) to examine interdyad differences in mother-adolescent emotion dynamics during a conflict discussion, and whether interdyad differences were associated with maternal and adolescent perspective taking. Mothers and their typically developing adolescents (N = 49, M_age = 14.84 years) were video-recorded during a 10-min conflict discussion. We identified patterns of multistep chains of expressed emotions that unfolded during the conflict and how interdyad differences in those patterns were associated with maternal and adolescent perspective taking. Dyads differed with respect to whether they showed turn taking in validation and interest behaviors, or whether they showed patterns of reciprocated negative affect. Higher adolescent but not maternal perspective taking was associated with dyadic turn taking of validation and interest. Maternal and adolescent perspective taking were not associated with the pattern of reciprocated negative affect. Taken together, results highlight the importance of examining the complex process of emotion dynamics in parent-adolescent interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Prediction of Anger Expression of Individuals with Psychiatric Disorders using the Developed Computational Codes based on the Various Soft Computing Algorithms

Anger is defined as a psychobiological emotional state that consists of feelings varying in intensity from mild irritation or annoyance to intense fury and rage. Dysfunction in anger regulation is marker of most psychiatric disorders. The most important point about anger regulation by the individuals is how to express anger and control it. The purpose of the present study is to predict the anger expression from the anger experience in individuals with psychiatric disorder for assessment of how to express and control the anger. To this end, the number of 3,000 subjects of individuals with clinical disorders had filled in the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-II (STAXI-II). After removing the uncertain diagnoses (900 subjects), the number of 2,100 data was considered in the analysis. Then, the computational codes based on three soft computing algorithms, including Radial Basis Function (RBF), Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Decision Tree (DT) were developed to predict the scales of anger expression of the individuals with psychiatric disorders. The scales of anger experience were used as input data of the developed computational codes. Comparison between the results obtained from the DT, RBF and ANFIS algorithms show that all the developed soft computing algorithms forecast the anger expression scales with an acceptable accuracy. However, the accuracy of the DT algorithm is better than the other algorithms.

Using Bi-Weekly Surveys to Portray Adolescent Partnership Dynamics: Lessons From a Mobile Diary Study

Partnership formation is an important developmental task for adolescents, but cross-sectional and periodic longitudinal studies have lacked the measurement precision to portray partnership stability and flux and to capture the range of adolescent partnership experiences. This article assesses the promises and challenges of using bi-weekly mobile diaries administered over the course of a year to study adolescent partnership dynamics. Descriptive findings illustrate the potential of bi-weekly diaries for both capturing the longitudinal complexity and fluidity of adolescent partnerships as well as for reducing retrospection biases. Results also underscore several challenges, including those posed by missing data, and highlight several strategies for maximizing participant engagement and reliably tracing adolescent partnerships.

Measuring the Psychobiological Correlates of Daily Experience in Adolescents

Mapping the psychobiological correlates of social contexts, experiences, and emotional responses of adolescents in their daily lives provides insight into how adolescent well-being shapes, and is shaped by, experience. Measures of these psychobiological correlates are enabled by devices and technologies that must be precise and suitable for adolescent participants. The present report reviews the most often used research measures, and suggests strategies for best practice, drawn from practical experience. The rapid advances in technological methods to collect attuned measures of psychological processes, social context, and biological function indicate the promise for multimodal measures in ecological settings. Attaining these methodological goals will support research to secure comprehensive, quality data, and advance the understanding of psychobiological function in ambulatory settings.

The representation and plasticity of body emotion expression

Emotions are expressed by the face, the voice and the whole body. Research on the face and the voice has not only demonstrated that emotions are perceived categorically, but that this perception can be manipulated. The purpose of this study was to investigate, via two separate experiments using adaptation and multisensory techniques, whether the perception of body emotion expressions also shows categorical effects and plasticity. We used an approach developed for studies investigating both face and voice emotion perception and created novel morphed affective body stimuli, which varied in small incremental steps between emotions. Participants were instructed to perform an emotion categorisation of these morphed bodies after adaptation to bodies conveying different expressions (Experiment 1), or while simultaneously hearing affective voices (Experiment 2). We show that not only is body expression perceived categorically, but that both adaptation to affective body expressions and concurrent presentation of vocal affective information can shift the categorical boundary between body expressions, specifically for the angry body expressions. Overall, our findings provide significant new insights into emotional body categorisation, which may prove important in gaining a deeper understanding of body expression perception in everyday social situations.

Exploring emotional expression recognition in aging adults using the Moving Window Technique

Adult aging is associated with difficulties in recognizing negative facial expressions such as fear and anger. However, happiness and disgust recognition is generally found to be less affected. Eye-tracking studies indicate that the diagnostic features of fearful and angry faces are situated in the upper regions of the face (the eyes), and for happy and disgusted faces in the lower regions (nose and mouth). These studies also indicate age-differences in visual scanning behavior, suggesting a role for attention in emotion recognition deficits in older adults. However, because facial features can be processed extrafoveally, and expression recognition occurs rapidly, eye-tracking has been questioned as a measure of attention during emotion recognition. In this study, the Moving Window Technique (MWT) was used as an alternative to the conventional eye-tracking technology. By restricting the visual field to a moveable window, this technique provides a more direct measure of attention. We found a strong bias to explore the mouth across both age groups. Relative to young adults, older adults focused less on the left eye, and marginally more on the mouth and nose. Despite these different exploration patterns, older adults were most impaired in recognition accuracy for disgusted expressions. Correlation analysis revealed that among older adults, more mouth exploration was associated with faster recognition of both disgusted and happy expressions. As a whole, these findings suggest that in aging there are both attentional differences and perceptual deficits contributing to less accurate emotion recognition.

Pupillary contagion is independent of the emotional expression of the face

The concept of pupillary contagion refers to the automatic imitation of observed pupil size and reflects shared autonomic arousal. Previous studies have linked the experience of sadness to changes in pupil size. Accordingly, in a 2006 Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience article, Harrison, Singer, Rotshtein, Dolan, and Critchley found evidence for pupillary contagion when the observed face expressed sadness but not when it showed a neutral, happy, or angry expression. However, differences in eye movements might have influenced these results. Furthermore, the relatively small sample size of the study merits additional replication. In the current study, we modified the experimental design of Harrison et al. by requiring high attention toward the eye region of the face, which minimized differences in eye movements between facial expressions. In doing so, we demonstrate that the degree of pupillary contagion is independent of the observed emotional expression. Instead, pupil size and emotional expression of the shown face independently contribute to the observer's pupil size. The role of pupillary contagion for social communication is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived regard, expressive suppression during conflict, and conflict resolution

The way emotions are expressed during relationship conflict should play an important role in facilitating conflict resolution, but the risk of rejection that conflict poses may promote expressive suppression, which could impede conflict resolution. In the current research, the authors applied a risk regulation perspective to understand when expressive suppression will occur during conflict. They predicted that (a) perceiving lower regard from the partner during conflict would predict greater expressive suppression, and (b) greater expressive suppression would undermine conflict resolution. In Study 1, individuals engaged in a conflict discussion with their romantic partner (N = 180 couples) and then reported the degree to which they felt regarded by their partner and generated a solution to the conflict during the discussion. Independent coders rated how much individuals attempted to suppress their emotional expressions during the conflict. In Study 2, individuals reported on their relationship conflict, perceived regard, expressive suppression, and conflict resolution every day across a 3-week period (N = 73 couples). In both studies, perceiving lower positive regard during conflict was associated with greater expressive suppression. Greater expressive suppression was, in turn, associated with lower conflict resolution. These associations were not due to greater stress/upset or negative emotions, greater withdrawal, greater attachment insecurity, or lower positive regard for the partner. These within-situation associations suggest that expressive suppression may often arise to bypass the risk of rejection that occurs when people feel less positively regarded by their partner, but expressive suppression may also put relationships at further risk by undermining conflict resolution. (PsycINFO Database Record

Expressed emotion, burden, and distress in significant others of people with dementia

Significant others of people with dementia suffer high levels of burden and distress, creating the conditions for the negative attitudes and unhelpful responses described within the construct of Expressed Emotion (EE). It is not known however, whether EE then further enhances significant other burden and distress, and whether these processes operate early after symptoms of dementia have started. The current study used a longitudinal design to examine the potential influence of EE on burden and distress in significant others of people with a recent diagnosis of dementia. Sixty-one significant others of people with dementia were recruited. Significant other EE was coded from the Camberwell Family Interview. Significant other burden and distress, and relationship quality were collected through questionnaires at baseline and at 6-month follow-up. Significant other high-EE was associated with higher levels of burden and greater distress at both baseline and 6-month follow-up, when existing relationship quality was controlled for. High-EE significant others showed increases in burden and distress from baseline to follow-up not seen in low-EE significant others. Interventions aiming to modify significant other response styles and to reduce high-EE may potentially benefit significant others by reducing their levels of burden and distress. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ambivalence over emotional expression and perceived social constraints as moderators of relaxation training and emotional awareness and expression training for irritable bowel syndrome

OBJECTIVE

Psychological treatments are generally beneficial for patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but patients' responses vary. A prior randomized controlled trial found that both relaxation training (RT) and emotional awareness and expression training (EAET) were superior to a waitlist control condition for IBS symptoms, quality of life, depression, and anxiety among IBS patients (Thakur et al., 2017).

METHOD

We conducted secondary analyses on these data to examine potential moderators of treatment outcomes. Baseline measures of patients' ambivalence over emotional expression and perceived social constraints, which have been hypothesized to influence some treatments, were tested as possible moderators of the effects of RT and EAET, compared to the control condition.

RESULTS

Results indicated that these variables moderated the effects of RT but not EAET. The benefits of RT occurred for patients who reported higher ambivalence over emotional expression or perceived social constraints, whereas the benefits of EAET were not influenced by these factors.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that RT might be particularly helpful for people who tend to avoid emotional disclosure and expression, supporting the possible benefit of targeting treatments to patient characteristics and preferences, whereas EAET might be helpful for a broader range of patients with IBS.

Adolescent Externalizing Problems: Contributions of Community Crime Exposure and Neural Function During Emotion Introspection in Mexican-Origin Youth

Models of the etiology of adolescent antisocial behavior suggest that externalizing problems may reflect a susceptibility to crime exposure and a diminished capacity for emotion introspection. In this study, adolescents of Mexican origin completed a neuroimaging task that involved rating their subjective feelings of sadness in response to emotional facial expressions or a nonemotional aspect of each face. At lower levels of neural activity during sadness introspection in posterior cingulate and left temporoparietal junction, and in left amygdala, brain regions involved in mentalizing and emotion, respectively, a stronger positive association between community crime exposure and externalizing problems was found. The specification of emotion introspection as a psychological process showing neural variation may help inform targeted interventions to positively affect adolescent behavior.

Parental Expressed Emotion-Criticism and Neural Markers of Sustained Attention to Emotional Faces in Children

There is growing evidence for the role of environmental influences on children's information-processing biases for affectively salient stimuli. The goal of this study was to extend this research by examining the relation between parental criticism (expressed emotion-criticism, or EE-Crit) and children's processing of facial displays of emotion. Specifically, we examined the relation between EE-Crit and children's sensitivity in detecting facial displays of emotion. We also examined a neural marker of sustained attention, the late positive potential (LPP) event-related potential component (ERP). Participants were 87 children (ages 7-11 years; 53.3% female, 77.8% Caucasian) and their parents (ages 24-71; 90% female, 88.9% Caucasian). Parents completed the Five-Minute Speech Sample to determine levels of EE-Crit toward their child. Children completed a morphed faces task during which behavioral and ERP responses were assessed. Although there were no group differences in sensitivity in detecting facial displays of emotion, we found that children of parents exhibiting high, compared to low, EE-Crit displayed less attention (smaller LPP magnitudes) to all facial displays of emotion (fearful, happy, sad). These results suggest that children of critical parents may exhibit an avoidant pattern of attention to affectively-salient interpersonal stimuli.

Coping With Racism: Moderators of the Discrimination-Adjustment Link Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents

What strategies help ethnic minority adolescents to cope with racism? The present study addressed this question by testing the role of ethnic identity, social support, and anger expression and suppression as moderators of the discrimination-adjustment link among 269 Mexican-origin adolescents (Mage  = 14.1 years), 12-17 years old from the Midwestern U.S. Results from multilevel moderation analyses indicated that ethnic identity, social support, and anger suppression, respectively, significantly attenuated the relations between discrimination and adjustment problems, whereas outward anger expression exacerbated these relations. Moderation effects differed according to the level of analysis. By identifying effective coping strategies in the discrimination-adjustment link at specific levels of analysis, the present findings can guide future intervention efforts for Latino youth.

Assisted and unassisted recession of functional anomalies associated with dysprosody in adults who stutter

PURPOSE

Speech in persons who stutter (PWS) is associated with disturbed prosody (speech melody and intonation), which may impact communication. The neural correlates of PWS' altered prosody during speaking are not known, neither is how a speech-restructuring therapy affects prosody at both a behavioral and a cerebral level.

METHODS

In this fMRI study, we explored group differences in brain activation associated with the production of different kinds of prosody in 13 male adults who stutter (AWS) before, directly after, and at least 1 year after an effective intensive fluency-shaping treatment, in 13 typically fluent-speaking control participants (CP), and in 13 males who had spontaneously recovered from stuttering during adulthood (RAWS), while sentences were read aloud with 'neutral', instructed emotional (happy), and linguistically driven (questioning) prosody. These activations were related to speech production acoustics.

RESULTS

During pre-treatment prosody generation, the pars orbitalis of the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left anterior insula were activated less in AWS than in CP. The degree of hypo-activation correlated with acoustic measures of dysprosody. Paralleling the near-normalization of free speech melody following fluency-shaping therapy, AWS normalized the inferior frontal hypo-activation, sooner after treatment for generating emotional than linguistic prosody. Unassisted recovery was associated with an additional recruitment of cerebellar resources.

CONCLUSIONS

Fluency shaping therapy may restructure prosody, which approaches that of typically fluent-speaking people. Such a process may benefit from additional training of instructed emotional and linguistic prosody by inducing plasticity in the inferior frontal region which has developed abnormally during childhood in PWS.

The Relationship Between Expressed Emotion and the Probability of Suicide Among Turkish Psychiatric Outpatients: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Survey

The purpose of this study is to examine expressed emotion and the relationship between expressed emotion and suicide probability in psychiatric outpatients (N = 350). Patients who did not receive support from anyone scored higher on the Level of Expressed Emotion (LEE) Scale than those who were supported by family, friends, or their physician provider. Scores by patients, who selected their spouse as a key person, scored higher on the LEE than those who chose one of their children. Spouses on the LEE were often depicted as being more intrusive, reactive, and intolerant when compared with their children. The probability of suicide increased as the LEE scores on expressed emotion increased.

Expressive Incoherence and Alexithymia in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Expressive incoherence can be implicated in socio-emotional communicative problems in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study examined expressive incoherence in 37 children with ASD and 41 typically developing (TD) children aged 3-13 years old during a frustration task. The role of alexithymia in expressive incoherence was also assessed. Compared to TD children, children with ASD had higher expressive incoherence, such as more neutral and positive emotion expressions during negative behaviors, but not in the expression of negative emotions during positive behaviors. Further analyses revealed that alexithymia moderated the expressions of positive emotions during negative behaviors. These results suggest that children with ASD may benefit from interventions targeting alexithymia to increase emotional coherence, which may improve socio-emotional communication.

Predictors of coping and perceived expressed emotions in persons with alcohol dependence in India: a pilot study

To understand the predictors of coping behaviour and perceived expressed emotion in persons with alcohol dependence, 60 adults who approached an institutional setting for treatment and satisfied the ICD-10-F10 criteria without other psychotic disorder were administered the Socio Demographic Interview Schedule, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Coping Behaviour Inventory (CBI) and Level of Expressed Emotion Scale (LEE). Age at first intake emerged as significant predictor of coping behaviour (Beta=-0.259; p=0.046) and of level of expressed emotion (Beta=-0.303; p=0.019) in patients with alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) in an institutional setting.

Concurrent development of facial identity and expression discrimination

Facial identity and facial expression processing both appear to follow a protracted developmental trajectory, yet these trajectories have been studied independently and have not been directly compared. Here we investigated whether these processes develop at the same or different rates using matched identity and expression discrimination tasks. The Identity task begins with a target face that is a morph between two identities (Identity A/Identity B). After a brief delay, the target face is replaced by two choice faces: 100% Identity A and 100% Identity B. Children 5-12-years-old were asked to pick the choice face that is most similar to the target identity. The Expression task is matched in format and difficulty to the Identity task, except the targets are morphs between two expressions (Angry/Happy, or Disgust/Surprise). The same children were asked to pick the choice face with the expression that is most similar to the target expression. There were significant effects of age, with performance improving (becoming more accurate and faster) on both tasks with increasing age. Accuracy and reaction times were not significantly different across tasks and there was no significant Age x Task interaction. Thus, facial identity and facial expression discrimination appear to develop at a similar rate, with comparable improvement on both tasks from age five to twelve. Because our tasks are so closely matched in format and difficulty, they may prove useful for testing face identity and face expression processing in special populations, such as autism or prosopagnosia, where one of these abilities might be impaired.

A large-scale analysis of sex differences in facial expressions

There exists a stereotype that women are more expressive than men; however, research has almost exclusively focused on a single facial behavior, smiling. A large-scale study examines whether women are consistently more expressive than men or whether the effects are dependent on the emotion expressed. Studies of gender differences in expressivity have been somewhat restricted to data collected in lab settings or which required labor-intensive manual coding. In the present study, we analyze gender differences in facial behaviors as over 2,000 viewers watch a set of video advertisements in their home environments. The facial responses were recorded using participants’ own webcams. Using a new automated facial coding technology we coded facial activity. We find that women are not universally more expressive across all facial actions. Nor are they more expressive in all positive valence actions and less expressive in all negative valence actions. It appears that generally women express actions more frequently than men, and in particular express more positive valence actions. However, expressiveness is not greater in women for all negative valence actions and is dependent on the discrete emotional state.

Emotional Reactivity, Behavior Problems, and Social Adjustment at School Entry in a High-risk Sample

Prior research suggests that heightened emotional reactivity to emotionally distressing stimuli may be associated with elevated internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and contribute to impaired social functioning. These links were explored in a sample of 169 economically-disadvantaged kindergarteners (66 % male; 68 % African American, 22 % Hispanic, 10 % Caucasian) oversampled for elevated aggression. Physiological measures of emotional reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], heart rate [HR], and cardiac pre-ejection period [PEP]) were collected, and teachers and peers provided ratings of externalizing and internalizing behavior, prosocial competence, and peer rejection. RSA withdrawal, HR reactivity, and PEP shortening (indicating increased arousal) were correlated with reduced prosocial competence, and RSA withdrawal and HR reactivity were correlated with elevated internalizing problems. HR reactivity was also correlated with elevated externalizing problems and peer rejection. Linear regressions controlling for age, sex, race, verbal proficiency, and resting physiology showed that HR reactivity explained unique variance in both teacher-rated prosocial competence and peer rejection, and contributed indirectly to these outcomes through pathways mediated by internalizing and externalizing problems. A trend also emerged for the unique contribution of PEP reactivity to peer-rated prosocial competence. These findings support the contribution of emotional reactivity to behavior problems and social adjustment among children living in disadvantaged urban contexts, and further suggest that elevated reactivity may confer risk for social difficulties in ways that overlap only partially with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems.

Body Weight Can Change How Your Emotions Are Perceived

Accurately interpreting other’s emotions through facial expressions has important adaptive values for social interactions. However, due to the stereotypical social perception of overweight individuals as carefree, humorous, and light-hearted, the body weight of those with whom we interact may have a systematic influence on our emotion judgment even though it has no relevance to the expressed emotion itself. In this experimental study, we examined the role of body weight in faces on the affective perception of facial expressions. We hypothesized that the weight perceived in a face would bias the assessment of an emotional expression, with overweight faces generally more likely to be perceived as having more positive and less negative expressions than healthy weight faces. Using two-alternative forced-choice perceptual decision tasks, participants were asked to sort the emotional expressions of overweight and healthy weight facial stimuli that had been gradually morphed across six emotional intensity levels into one of two categories—“neutral vs. happy” (Experiment 1) and “neutral vs. sad” (Experiment 2). As predicted, our results demonstrated that overweight faces were more likely to be categorized as happy (i.e., lower happy decision threshold) and less likely to be categorized as sad (i.e., higher sad decision threshold) compared to healthy weight faces that had the same levels of emotional intensity. The neutral-sad decision threshold shift was negatively correlated with participant’s own fear of becoming fat, that is, those without a fear of becoming fat more strongly perceived overweight faces as sad relative to those with a higher fear. These findings demonstrate that the weight of the face systematically influences how its emotional expression is interpreted, suggesting that being overweight may make emotional expressions appear more happy and less sad than they really are.

Anger Expression and Blood Pressure in Adolescents

The clinical significance of childhood hypertension is important as elevated pressures during childhood are found to follow a progressively increasing track into adulthood. Little work has been done to examine the relationship of emotions and emotional behavioral factors to the development of hypertension in children. Using the Roy Adaptation Model as a guide, this study investigated the relationship of anger expression and blood pressure (BP) among adolescents 16–18 years of age. Participants were 63 urban high school seniors. Measurements included the Anger Expression Inventory, a Demographic Questionnaire, and measures of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Analysis revealed significant positive relationships between anger expression with blood pressure, and a significant inverse relationship between blood pressure and the control of anger for girls. No significant relationships between anger expression and blood pressure were noted for boys. The majority of students (53%) were found to have high normal or hypertensive blood pressure readings, putting them at increased cardiovascular risk.

Assessing Anger Expression: Construct Validity of Three Emotion Expression-Related Measures

Self-report measures of emotional expression are common, but their validity to predict objective emotional expression, particularly of anger, is unclear. We tested the validity of the Anger Expression Inventory (AEI; Spielberger et al., 1985 ), Emotional Approach Coping Scale (EAC; Stanton, Kirk, Cameron, & Danoff-Burg, 2000 ), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994 ) to predict objective anger expression in 95 adults with chronic back pain. Participants attempted to solve a difficult computer maze by following the directions of a confederate who treated them rudely and unjustly. Participants then expressed their feelings for 4 min. Blinded raters coded the videos for anger expression, and a software program analyzed expression transcripts for anger-related words. Analyses related each questionnaire to anger expression. The AEI Anger-Out scale predicted greater anger expression, as expected, but AEI Anger-In did not. The EAC Emotional Processing scale predicted less anger expression, but the EAC Emotional Expression scale was unrelated to anger expression. Finally, the TAS-20 predicted greater anger expression. Findings support the validity of the AEI Anger-Out scale but raise questions about the other measures. The assessment of emotional expression by self-report is complex and perhaps confounded by general emotional experience, the specificity or generality of the emotion(s) assessed, and self-awareness limitations. Performance-based or clinician-rated measures of emotion expression are needed.

Psychosocial Factors Related to the Correspondence of Recipient and Provider Perceptions of Social Support among Patients Diagnosed with or at Risk for Malignant Melanoma

This study examined considered perceptions of social support and factors contributing to increased support among 18 patients diagnosed with or at risk for malignant melanoma and their partners. Partner support, perceived stress, emotional approach coping and partner empathy were evaluated. Results showed lack of correspondence between patient and partner reports of support. Greater correspondence between reports was associated with increased patient emotional approach coping. Partners reported increased empathy following the patients’ diagnoses and more perceived stress than patients. Patients indicated greater use of emotional approach coping than their partners. Male partners reported engaging in less emotional expression than female partners. Interventions might incorporate partner participation to resolve misperceptions of support and to foster factors that promote increased support.

Perceived Expressed Emotion in Adolescents with Binge-Eating Disorder

A sizeable body of research has documented Expressed Emotion (EE) to predict clinical outcomes in various psychiatric disorders, including eating disorders. Patients' perceptions of relative's EE, however, were found to play an important role in the processing of EE. This study aimed to examine the level of perceived EE in adolescent binge-eating disorder (BED) and its impact on eating disorder psychopathology. Adolescents (12-20 years) seeking treatment for BED (n = 40) were compared to adolescents without current or lifetime eating disorder (CG; n = 40). Both groups were stratified according to age, sex, body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2)), and socio-economic status. The Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) and the Brief Dyadic Scale of EE were administered to assess patients' perceived maternal EE. Additionally, adolescents and mothers completed questionnaires on eating disorder and general psychopathology. On the FMSS, 37.5 % of patients with BED perceived their mothers as high EE (vs. 12.5 % in the CG). On the Brief Dyadic Scale of EE, patients with BED reported significantly higher levels of perceived maternal criticism, emotional overinvolvement, and lower levels of perceived warmth than controls. After controlling for the diagnosis of BED, perceived criticism and warmth, as assessed by questionnaire, significantly explained adolescents' global eating disorder psychopathology. Negative perceptions of maternal behavior and emotional atmosphere towards the child are characteristic of adolescent BED. As documented for other eating disorders, family factors are likely to have substantial implications for the maintenance and treatment of adolescent BED.

Oxytocin and vasopressin hormone genes in children's externalizing problems: A cognitive endophenotype approach

Externalizing problems are among the most common mental health problems of children. Research suggests that these problems are heritable, yet little is known about the specific genes involved in their pathophysiology. The current study examined a genotype-endophenotype-phenotype model of externalizing problems in 320 preschool-aged children. Markers of the oxytocin (OXT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) hormone genes were selected as candidates owing to their known association with psychopathology in other domains. We tested whether OXT and AVP variants were related to children's externalizing problems, as well as two cognitive endophenotypes presumed to underlie these problems: theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF). Externalizing problems were assessed at age 4.5 using a previously-validated rating scale. ToM and EF were measured with age-appropriate tasks. Using a family-based association design and controlling for non-genomic confounds, support was found for an association between a two-marker OXT haplotype (rs2740210-rs2770378) and a two-marker AVP haplotype (rs1887854-rs3761249) and externalizing problems. Specific associations of these haplotypes with ToM and EF were also observed. Further, ToM and EF were shown to independently and jointly predict externalizing problems, and to partially mediate the effects of OXT and AVP on externalizing problems. This study provides the first evidence that genetic variation in OXT and AVP may contribute to individual differences in childhood externalizing problems, and that these effects may operate through emerging neurocognitive abilities in the preschool period.

Parental Expressed Emotion and Youth Psychopathology: New Directions for an Old Construct

Levels of parental expressed emotion (EE) are prospectively associated with the symptomatic course of a range of childhood psychiatric disorders. This article reviews the literature linking parental EE to youth psychopathology and proposes a novel framework for understanding its mechanisms of action. We find that, despite noteworthy methodological limitations, parental EE is linked consistently to a more deleterious course of mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders in youth. Its mechanism of action is unknown. Models of "toxic family stress" (referring to frequent, sustained, and uncontrollable stress without protective influences) provide one framework for understanding how high EE environments interact with individual biological vulnerabilities to promote illness onset and recurrence. Research aimed at understanding biological responses (e.g., stress reactivity, arousal) to familial EE is needed. Such work may inform efforts to understand how EE affects the course of psychiatric disorders and may guide the development of novel interventions emphasizing emotion regulation strategies.

Effect of motor limitations on the expression of aggressiveness among adolescents

This study examined how motor limitations in terms of reduced possibilities to move influence aggression, starting from the fact that motor skills and movement have an important place in the expression of aggression, as well as the tendency of adolescents to "body language". Adolescent with motor deficit is hindered in gaining experience of one's own body, which is reflected in the formation of complete experience of himself, or constitution of the self. In many of the functions of motor skills and movement aggression has a significant place that we wanted to determine without deeper analysis of whether the origin of aggression is instinctive or it is always just the result of frustration. The sample on which testing was performed consisted of 100 randomly selected subjects of both genders aged 16-18 years. Fifty subjects had motor limitations due to illness or injury, and another fifty subjects had intact motor functions. The study used three instruments: 1) A-87 questionnaire for aggressiveness examination; 2) structured interview; and 3) protocol for observation under natural conditions. Results of the analysis of data obtained in total score, as well as in all five subscales of the A-87 questionnaire for aggressiveness examination showed that the two groups were not significantly different. The results obtained by structured interview showed the adolescents with motor limitations to demonstrate greater verbal aggressiveness, then latent physical aggressiveness. A statistically significant between-group difference was obtained on the factor of self-destructiveness, which implies that adolescents with motor limitations are somewhat more self-destructive compared to those in control group. From the results obtained by the protocol for systematic observation in natural conditions, it was evident that there were significant differences on most of perceptual conducts between control and experimental group, whereby adolescents with motor limitations were more aggressive than control group subjects, especially in behaviors that apply to all forms of verbal aggressiveness. All examined adolescents in which some apparent forms of aggressive behavior were noticed in the observation protocol showed comparable expression of aggressiveness according to the results obtained on the subscales of the A-87 aggressiveness questionnaire, which connects these two measuring instruments and justifies their use in the study of aggressiveness regardless of the understanding of the origin of aggression.

Administering questionnaires to older people: rigid adherence to protocol may deny and disacknowledge emotional expression

This paper draws on data from a larger study conducted in care home facilities in: Seattle, USA; West Sussex and Surrey in the UK; and in the lower North Island in New Zealand. Two extracts from interactions between the researchers and an older person during the administration of The Philadelphia Geriatric Morale Scale in a care home facility in New Zealand were analysed following Houtkoop-Steenstra and using a Conversation Analysis (CA) approach. In the first extract the audio-recorded transcript was examined for events of institutional talk and rephrasing of questionnaire questions. We also examined the transcript for missed cues and the impact of closed questions when administrating questionnaires to older people living in care home facilities. We then present an extract where the researcher uses a conversational approach during the administration of the same questionnaire. We conclude that rigid adherence to interview protocols when administering questionnaires to older people who cannot complete these themselves disables the interviewer from interacting and engaging in a meaningful conversation or responding to cues that indicate distress or expressions of grief. The effect of this approach may deny and disacknowledge older persons' emotional experiences and for the older person the interview may not be a therapeutic encounter. Based on our analysis and experiences of conducting this research we support recommendations that a collaborative approach, allowing an interactional exchange between interviewer and respondent, be used when administering questionnaires to older people in care home facilities.

Attributions, criticism and warmth in mothers of children with intellectual disability and challenging behaviour: a pilot study

BACKGROUND

Associations between parental expressed emotion (EE) or parental attributions and the problem behaviours of children with intellectual disability (ID) have been explored in ID research. However, a more detailed examination of the attributional model of EE has not been reported. In the present study, we partially replicated and extended research focused on mothers of typically developing children with behaviour problems.

METHODS

Twenty-seven mothers of children with ID and behaviour problems aged 4-9 years were interviewed about their most problematic behaviours exhibited by their child, and completed a Five Minute Speech Sample. Interview transcripts and speech samples were coded for maternal EE and spontaneous causal attributions regarding the child's behaviour problems. Data were also collected on maternal well-being, and the child's behaviour problems.

RESULTS

Mothers typically made attributions that were internal to the child, controllable by the child, personal to the child and stable for the child. Maternal attributions of being able to control the child's behaviour were associated with high maternal criticism and low warmth. Maternal depression was more strongly associated with the child's behaviour problems when mothers were coded as high in criticism or low in warmth.

CONCLUSIONS

Patterns of maternal attributions about their child's behaviour problems and their consequences for maternal well-being and maternal-child relationships require more research attention. Implications for practice are discussed, including the potential for maternal attributions to be incompatible with the focus of positive behaviour supports offered to families.

Contribution of neurophysiological endophenotype, individual frequency of EEG alpha oscillations, to mechanisms of emotional reactivity

We studied the relationship between individual alpha frequency (IAF) of EEG (neurophysiological endophenotype reflecting individual predisposition to efficacious cognitive and creative activity) and individual emotional reactivity. The psychophysiological study included healthy men in two models of evoked emotions - anxious apprehension (awaiting of inescapable aversive punishment) and discrete (opposite) emotions. Analysis of self-report, multichannel EEG, galvanic skin response, and cardiovascular reactivity showed that individuals with high IAF are characterized by predominance of parasympathetic influences in autonomic regulation circuit, proactive strategies of coping with inescapable threat, higher activity of positive emotional attitude and availability of memory traces about positive experience. Individuals with low IAF demonstrate predominance of sympathetic influences and maladaptive avoidance-like coping with inescapable threat and insufficiency of positive emotional activation mechanisms. It is suggested that IAF participates in the formation of individual emotional space and strategies of coping with emotional challenges.

Temper outbursts in Prader-Willi syndrome: causes, behavioural and emotional sequence and responses by carers

BACKGROUND

Temper outbursts are common in Prader-Willi syndrome but rarely described in detail. This study investigated the phenomenology of temper outbursts in terms of antecedents, sequence of behaviours and emotions and intervention strategies used.

METHOD

A semi-structured interview about temper outbursts was conducted with the main carers of seven children (9.5 to 16.7 years) and seven adults (24.7 to 47.10 years) with Prader-Willi syndrome (10 male, 4 female). Reliability and validity of the interview results was established.

RESULTS

Various setting events increased and reduced the likelihood of temper outbursts. The most common antecedent was a change to routine or expectation. There were marked similarities in the sequence of behaviours and emotions during temper outbursts, with anger rising quickly followed by expressions of remorse and distress at the end of an outburst.

DISCUSSION

The sequence of behaviours and emotions within outbursts was similar to that described in temper tantrums in typical development. Cognitive and emotional processes are likely to be important in the understanding of temper outbursts with implications for early intervention.

A randomized controlled trial of bibliotherapy for carers of young people with first-episode psychosis

Caring for young people with first-episode psychosis (FEP) is challenging and can adversely affect carer well-being, with limited evidence-based support materials available. We aimed to examine whether completion of a self-directed problem-solving bibliotherapy among carers of young people with FEP led to a better experience of caring, less distress and expressed emotion, and better general health than carers who only received treatment as usual (TAU). A randomized controlled trial was conducted across two early-intervention psychosis services in Melbourne, Australia. A total of 124 carers were randomized to problem-solving bibliotherapy intervention (PSBI) or TAU and assessed at baseline, 6-week and 16-week follow-up. Intent-to-treat analyses were carried out and indicated that recipients of PSBI had a more favorable experience of caring than those receiving TAU, and these effects were sustained at both follow-up time points. Across the other measures, both groups demonstrated improvements by week 16, although the PBSI group tended to improve earlier. The PSBI group experienced a greater reduction in negative emotional evaluations of the need to provide additional support to young people with FEP than the TAU group by week 6, while the level of psychological distress decreased at a greater rate from baseline to 6 weeks in the PSBI compared with the TAU group. These findings support the use of problem-solving bibliotherapy for first-time carers, particularly as a cost-effective adjunct to TAU.

The ankyrin-3 gene is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and externalizing comorbidity

BACKGROUND

The ankyrin 3 gene (ANK3) produces the ankyrin G protein that plays an integral role in regulating neuronal activity. Previous studies have linked ANK3 to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A recent mouse study suggests that ANK3 may regulate behavioral disinhibition and stress reactivity. This led us to hypothesize that ANK3 might also be associated with stress-related psychopathology such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as disorders of the externalizing spectrum such as antisocial personality disorder and substance-related disorders that are etiologically linked to impulsivity and temperamental disinhibition.

METHODS

We examined the possibility of association between ANK3 SNPs and both PTSD and externalizing (defined by a factor score representing a composite of adult antisociality and substance abuse) in a cohort of white non-Hispanic combat veterans and their intimate partners (n=554). Initially, we focused on rs9804190-a SNP previously reported to be associated with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and ankyrin G expression in brain. Then we examined 358 additional ANK3 SNPs utilizing a multiple-testing correction.

RESULTS

rs9804190 was associated with both externalizing and PTSD (p=0.028 and p=0.042 respectively). Analysis of other ANK3 SNPs identified several that were more strongly associated with either trait. The most significant association with externalizing was observed at rs1049862 (p=0.00040, pcorrected=0.60). The most significant association with PTSD (p=0.00060, pcorrected=0.045) was found with three SNPs in complete linkage disequilibrium (LD)-rs28932171, rs11599164, and rs17208576.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings support a role of ANK3 in risk of stress-related and externalizing disorders, beyond its previous associations with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

[Beta-rhythm parameters changes during cognitive set to emotional facial expression with supplemented long-time interval between a warning and a target stimulus]

Beta-rhythm parameters during cognitive set to emotional facial expression were investigate in 35 healthy adults. Formation of the set was supplemented long-time interval (8 c) between a warning and a target stimulus. Rhythmical component of EEG were revealed using wavelet functions. Maximum and mean levels of wavelet coefficient (WLC) in the beta-rhythm were analyzed. We obtained 3 groups of subjects depend on mistakes of recognition facial expression. Group with correct recognition had high WLC mean level during the experiment, WLC maxima during first second of inter-stimulus interval, large latency of WLC maxima during the stage forming and predominance level WLC maxima in the left hemisphere. Two groups of subjects with mistakes in recognition had low WLC mean, maxima and their latency during set forming. Right hemisphere (WLC maxima) dominated in these groups.

[Psychophysiological signs of high-flexible forms of set on the emotionally negative facial expression]

In a series of studies of influence of past experience on an recognition of emotionally negative facial expression where obtained experimental facts which we consider as the formation signs of under certain conditions high-plastic cognitive (flexible) sets ("not fixed sets", according to D.N. Uznadze) when there switching or updating was not accompanied by illusory distortion of recognition. The studies of this form of set revealed: 1--the induced reaction of synchronization of a teta-rhythm to target stimulus was larger, than in cases with rigid set; 2--the induced reaction of an alpha rhythm to target stimulus is expressed in its synchronization, at the others cases--in a desynchronization; 3--at increase in a time interval between target and trigger stimuli observe alpha rhythm synchronization in the prestimulus period and in time intervals between them, at other cases it wasn't observed; 4--at children this form of set observed at the age of 10-11 years when "mature" set on an facial expression is formed.

Positive and negative emotion in the daily life of dual-earner couples with children

What is the emotional valence of family life and what factors contribute to this valence? Research indicates that most people are mildly happy but also that the years devoted to raising children are associated with diminished happiness and well-being, particularly for mothers. Public discourse is increasingly concerned that parenthood does not make us happy, but little empirical work has actually studied the emotional valence of family life. We addressed this gap in the literature with an intensive examination of the emotional valence of dual-earner family life. Specifically, we examined positive and negative emotional tone and expressivity throughout two weekday afternoons and evenings to test whether it was more positive or negative, explored gender differences in valence patterns, and qualitatively identified dinner food-related talk as a factor in mothers' evening emotion valence. Our sample was 30 dual-earner couples with young children who took part in a naturalistic observation study that involved continuous videotaping from the time that mothers and fathers left work until family members went to bed. Analyses revealed the following: (a) mild positive emotion was generally characteristic of both mothers and fathers, (b) mothers were more emotionally expressive than fathers, but (c) only mothers' positive emotion dropped during the evening period (5-8 p.m.) where the most salient feature of dinner was children's vocal expressions of distaste for dinner food. The implications of these findings for understanding the concurrent rewards and strains of everyday family life are discussed.

Dealing with emotions when the ability to cry is hampered: emotion processing and regulation in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome

OBJECTIVES

The hampered ability to cry in patients with Sjögren's syndrome may affect their ways of dealing with emotions. The aim of this study was to examine differences in emotion processing and regulation between people with and without Sjögren's syndrome and correlations of emotion processing and regulation with mental well-being.

METHODS

In 300 patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome and 100 demographically matched control participants (mean age 56.8 years, 93% female), emotion processing (affect intensity and alexithymia, i.e. difficulty identifying and describing feelings), emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal, suppression and expression of emotions), and mental well-being were assessed.

RESULTS

Criteria for clinical alexithymia applied to 22% of the patients and 12% of the control participants; patients had significantly more difficulty identifying feelings than control participants. No other significant differences in emotion processing and emotion regulation were found. In patients, the emotion processing styles affect intensity and alexithymia (0.32<r<0.51) and the emotion regulation strategy suppression of emotions (r=0.13) significantly correlated with worse mental well-being, which is about similar to control participants.

CONCLUSIONS

Processing and regulating emotions in patients with Sjögren's syndrome does not deviate from normal with one exception: a relatively large number of patients is alexithymic. As in the general population, in patients with Sjögren's syndrome the more intense and deficient processing and regulation of emotions is associated with worse mental well-being. This study indicates that, except for selected patients, processing and regulation of emotions is not a key therapeutic issue for the majority of patients with Sjögren's syndrome.

Family environment and behavior problems in children, adolescents, and adults with fragile X syndrome

We examine how the family environment is associated with aspects of the Fragile X syndrome phenotype during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Mothers of children (n  =  48), adolescents (n  =  85), and adults (n  =  34) with Fragile X syndrome participated in a multisite study. For children and adults with Fragile X syndrome, the presence of warmth and positivity and the absence of criticism were associated with fewer behavior problems. Although a higher level of criticism was significantly associated with greater behavior problems, there were only trend-level associations between levels of warmth and positivity and behavior problems during the adolescent years. The provision of family psychoeducation programs, which can reduce parental criticism, would likely benefit both the individual with Fragile X syndrome and the family.

Caregiver burden in chronic mental illness: the role of patient and caregiver characteristics

The aim of the present study is to identify the relative contribution of patient and caregiver characteristics in a sample of primary carers of patients with chronic mental disorders living in the community. As carers were recruited from caregiver organizations, mainly mothers of an adult child suffering from schizophrenia participated in the study (n = 102). Within a comprehensive transactional stress model, burden was assessed with respect to objective and subjective burden, cognitive-emotional well-being, psychological distress and subjective quality of life. Primary stressors include illness-related characteristics of the patient, and a number of personal dispositions and resources of the caregivers were included as potential moderating variables. Multiple regression analyses were separately calculated for each dimension of burden. Interaction of carers' expressed emotion and external locus of control with the patient's problem with family communication as well as perceived social support was most predictive for objective and subjective burden, whereas carers' neuroticism appeared as the most relevant predictor of their well-being, psychological distress and subjective quality of life. Among the patients' variables, regular employment contributed significantly to reduce carers' distress and enhance their well-being. As the sample was recruited from caregiver organizations, a selection bias has to be taken into account. To reduce caregiver burden, especially mothers' burden, the patients' occupational abilities should be strongly enhanced at an early stage. Family interventions should improve dysfunctional interactions, enhance the carers' social activities and focus more intensely on the carers' own dispositions.

The role of intersensory redundancy in the emergence of social referencing in 5½-month-old infants

Early evidence of social referencing was examined in 5½-month-old infants. Infants were habituated to 2 films of moving toys, one toy eliciting a woman's positive emotional expression and the other eliciting a negative expression under conditions of bimodal (audiovisual) or unimodal visual (silent) speech. It was predicted that intersensory redundancy provided by audiovisual (but not available in unimodal visual) events would enhance detection of the relation between emotional expressions and the corresponding toy. Consistent with predictions, only infants who received bimodal, audiovisual events detected a change in the affect-object relations, showing increased looking during a switch test in which the toy-affect pairing was reversed. Moreover, in a subsequent live preference test, they preferentially touched the 3-dimensional toy previously paired with the positive expression. These findings suggest social referencing emerges by 5½ months in the context of intersensory redundancy provided by dynamic multimodal stimulation and that even 5½-month-old infants demonstrate preferences for 3-dimensional objects on the basis of affective information depicted in videotaped events.

Diagnostic implications of informant disagreement about rage outbursts: bipolar disorder or another condition?

BACKGROUND

Modest agreement between parent- and teacher-reports of child behavior is a common finding. This study examines diagnoses made when significant disparity occurs in parent- and teacher-reports of rage behaviors.

METHODS

Parents and teachers of 911 5-18 year-olds referred for psychiatric outpatient services completed rating scales and received a psychiatric evaluation blind to parent- and teacher-ratings. Children with rage outbursts (n=431, 47.2%) were assessed for diagnosis, family history, and clinical variables.

RESULTS

Children were 12.0 (3.6) years; 26.5% were female. Bipolar disorder was rare (11.2%) in this sample; however, in children with parent- and teacher-reported rages, severe mood dysregulation was the most common condition (54.4%). In parent only reported rages, anxiety disorders were most common (40.6%) diagnoses, and in teacher only reported rages, learning/language disorders were the most common (46.0%) diagnoses.

CONCLUSION

The context in which a rage outburst occurs may impact the diagnosis; however, diagnosis alone does not explain this difficult and impairing behavior.

Further development of a scale of perceived expressed emotion and its evaluation in a sample of patients with eating disorders

High expressed emotion (EE) as measured by the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI) predicts the course of eating disorders (ED). Despite its important contribution to the field, the CFI has two major limitations; it is time-consuming and it does not consider the patient's perspective. Obtaining the patient's view may help shed light on the dyadic nature of caregiver's EE and the patient's illness course. The objectives of our study of 77 patients with ED were to develop further a brief measure to assess the patients' perceptions of their caregivers' EE, the patient version of the Brief Dyadic Scale of Expressed Emotion (BDSEE), and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Three clearly separate factors were identified: perceived criticism, perceived emotional overinvolvement, and perceived warmth. The BDSEE also demonstrated good levels of reliability and construct validity. The BDSEE subscales are significantly related to other measures of the perceived family emotional climate and to the CFI, the gold standard in the field of EE. The clinical implications of the ED patients' perceptions of their caregivers' EE are discussed. Findings support the utility of the expanded BDSEE for both research and clinical practise in assessing the perspective of patients with ED.

Behavioral correlates of maternal expressed emotion in interaction tasks

Family expressed emotion (EE), a measure of emotional overinvolvement (EOI) and criticism (CRIT), is predictive of relapses and poor treatment outcomes among adults experiencing a range of psychopathology and may predict outcomes among youth with mood disorders. Although it is typically measured by an individual interview with a family member, EE is thought to index family processes and, therefore, should be reflected in family interactional behavior. We examined the association between maternal EE and interactional behavior in a sample of mothers and their 8-12-year-old children. Mother-child dyads participated in three video-recorded interaction tasks--two problem-solving tasks and one planning-fun-activity task. Maternal EE was measured by the Five Minute Speech Sample, and mothers were classified as CRIT, EOI, or low EE. Maternal interactional behavior was coded using the Living in Family Environments coding system. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to test the hypothesis that both maternal EE and the type of task would predict maternal interactional behavior. On average, maternal critical behavior increased from the first to the second problem-solving task and decreased during the planning-fun-activity task. Mothers high in CRIT showed greater relative frequencies of critical behavior as compared to mothers high in EOI or mothers low in EE. The results suggest that maternal CRIT, as assessed by the Five Minute Speech Sample, is significantly associated with observed maternal critical behavior.

Developmental changes in anger expression and attention focus: learning to wait

Being able to wait is an essential part of self-regulation. In the present study, the authors examined the developmental course of changes in the latency to and duration of target-waiting behaviors by following 65 boys and 55 girls from rural and semirural economically strained homes from ages 18 months to 48 months. Age-related changes in latency to and duration of children's anger expressions and attention focus (e.g., self-initiated distraction) during an 8-min wait for a gift were found. On average, at 18 and 24 months of age, children were quick to react angrily and slower to shift attention away from the desired object than they were at later ages. Over time, children were quicker to distract themselves. By 36 months, distractions occurred before children expressed anger, and anger expressions were briefer. At 48 months, children typically made a quick bid to their mothers about having to wait before distracting themselves; on average, they did not appear angry until the latter half of the wait. Unexpectedly, children bid to their mothers as much at age 48 months as they had at 18 months; however, bids became less angry as children got older. Developmental changes in distraction and bidding predicted age-related changes in the latency to anger. Findings are discussed in terms of the neurocognitive control of attention around age 30 months, the limitations of children's self-regulatory efforts at age 48 months, and the importance of fostering children's ability to forestall, as well as modulate, anger.

Greater sadness reactivity in late life

Although previous research suggests that overall emotional reactivity does not change with normal aging, it is possible that different emotions follow different developmental courses. We examined emotional reactivity to films selected to elicit sadness, disgust, and a neutral state in young, middle-aged and older adults (total N = 222). Physiology and expressive behavior were measured continuously and reports of subjective emotional experience were obtained following each film. Results indicated that older adults reported greater sadness in response to all films and greater physiological responses to the sadness film than did the younger age groups. There were no age differences found in self-reported disgust or in behavioral expressions of sadness or disgust in response to any film. The age differences that were found were maintained even after controlling for pre-film self-reported sadness and for personal experiences of loss. These findings support the notion that sadness reactivity is heightened with age.