Assessment of Parental Expressed Emotion: Associations with Adolescent Depressive Symptoms Among Youth with Spina Bifida

Objectives A longitudinal multi-method, multi-informant design was utilized to investigate parental expressed emotion (EE) as a predictor of depressive symptoms among adolescents with spina bifida (n = 60) and a matched comparison sample (n = 65). Methods A newly modified self-administered audiotaped interview methodology was used to assess parental warmth and criticism across the middle adolescent developmental period (ages 14-17). Parent- and youth-reports of adolescent depressive symptoms were obtained at each time point. Results Significant cross-sectional associations between parental EE variables and youth depressive symptoms were found for both groups. Significant longitudinal relations between maternal criticism and parent proxy-report of youth depressive symptoms were also found across 2 years for the spina bifida group and across 4 years for both groups. Conclusions This modified measure of parental EE can be used in future pediatric research that focuses on precursors or outcomes of this important parenting construct.