Family Emotional Expressiveness Research Articles

Intersections of family expressiveness and adolescent mental health: exploring parent–adolescent relationships as a mediator

Purpose This study investigates the mediating role of parent−adolescent relationships in the impact of family emotional expressiveness on adolescent psychological adjustment. This study aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which positive family dynamics and strong parent−child bonds influence adolescents' psychological resilience and well-being. Design/methodology/approach The study involved 463 middle school students (241 boys and 222 girls) from Chlef, Algeria. Data was collected using the self-expressiveness in the family questionnaire (SEFQ), the parent−adolescent relationship scale (PARS) and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Descriptive statistics, correlations and mediation analysis were performed to examine the relationships among family emotional expressiveness, parent−adolescent relationships and psychological adjustment. Findings The results reveal moderate positive correlations among family emotional expressiveness, parent−adolescent relationships and psychological adjustment. Mediation analysis indicates that parent−adolescent relationships partially mediate the effects of family emotional expressiveness on psychological outcomes, with both direct and indirect effects being statistically significant. Originality/value This study contributes to the field of mental health by exploring the nuanced interplay between family dynamics, parent−adolescent relationships and psychological adjustment within the Algerian cultural context. While the quantitative nature of the study limits the depth of contextual insights, the findings underscore the importance of considering family emotional expressiveness and the quality of parent−adolescent relationships in interventions aimed at promoting adolescent psychological well-being. The study highlights the partial mediating role of parent−adolescent relationships, indicating that other factors may also influence the association between family expressiveness and adolescent adjustment. This emphasizes the need for a comprehensive, culturally-sensitive approach that addresses various influences on adolescent development. It should be noted that while the family unit and parenting styles have been extensively researched, this study offers a fresh perspective by focusing on these dynamics within a specific cultural setting.

Family Emotional Expressiveness and Adolescents' Cyberbullying Bystanders: The Mediating Role of Empathy.

The significant influence of family emotional expressiveness (FEE) on adolescents' face-to-face social interactions is well-established. However, there has been limited investigation into potential links between FEE and adolescents' online social behaviors, especially cyberbullying bystander behaviors, which are pivotal in cyberbullying incidents. This study aimed to assess the relative importance of different aspects of FEE (positive FEE vs. negative FEE vs. the Positive-to-Negative ratio) in predicting adolescents' cyberbullying bystander behaviors, and the mediating roles of affective and cognitive empathy in these relationships. A sample of 1,952 adolescents (Mage = 14.18, SD = 1.33) completed questionnaires, including the Family Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire, Basic Empathy Scale, and Cyberbullying Bystander Behavior Scale. SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3 were used for analysis. (1) Positive FEE exhibited a positive association with protective behavior and a negative association with indifferent behavior. Conversely, negative FEE showed positive associations with reinforcing and indifferent behaviors. However, the Positive-to-Negative ratio did not exhibit significant associations with any of the three bystander behaviors. (2) Negative FEE emerged as relatively more significant than both positive FEE and the Positive-to-Negative ratio in predicting reinforcing and indifferent behaviors. (3) Affective empathy mediated the relationship between positive FEE and reinforcing behavior, while cognitive empathy mediated the relationship between positive FEE and protective and indifferent behaviors. Moreover, cognitive empathy exerted a more influential role than affective empathy in this mediation process. Various aspects of FEE demonstrated distinct relationships with three cyberbullying bystander behaviors, with affective and cognitive empathy playing an important mediating role in the association. This finding holds substantial implications for the development of cyberbullying prevention strategies. Such strategies could target the reduction of negative emotional expression within adolescent families and the cultivation of both cognitive and affective empathy.

Effectiveness of mixed-mode parenting training program during the COVID-19 pandemic: A quasi-experiment study in Hong Kong

This study examined the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parenting training program in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic with a quasi-experiment. Altogether 139 parents of preschoolers (ages 3–6) participated in this study and completed the survey on Family Emotional Expressiveness, Child Behavior, Authoritative & Responsive & Negative Parenting across three time points during the lockdowns. They were cluster randomly assigned to the intervention (N1 = 69) and control groups (N2 = 70). The intervention was a 3-month mixed-mode parental training program, including 12-session videos followed by phone calls and homework assignments. The control group did not receive any parental training during the same period. The repeated ANOVA results indicated that: (1) there was a significant main effect of Time (p =.012, ηp2 = 0.045) on parents physical coercion dimension (PCD) scores and also a significant interaction effect between Time and Group (p =.042, ηp2 = 0.032), with the experimental group improved more over time; (2) there was a significant main effect of time (p =.027, ηp2 = 0.036) on parents’ verbal hostility dimension (VHD) scores, but no significant Time*Group interaction effect; (3) there was no significant Time effect in parents’ score on Negative Submissive (NS), but there was a significant interaction effect between time and group (p =.004, ηp2 = 0.054), with the experimental group reduced more than the control group. These results further provided empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parental training program in reducing negative parenting, including the negative submissive emotional expressions at home, physical coercion, and verbal hostility in interacting with preschool children at home. Implications based on social-cultural contexts are also discussed.

The moderating effect of self-efficacy between social constraints, social isolation, family environment, and depressive symptoms among breast cancer patients in China: a cross-sectional study.

For female breast cancer patients, the psychological status after surgery, especially the social and family psychological-related factors, deserves more attention. This study analyzed the influence of social constraints, social support, social isolation, family conflict, and family emotion expression on depression. At the same time, this study conducted the relationship between the variables and the mechanism of action. We conducted a cross-sectional study and 522 breast cancer patients finished questionnaires consisting of Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Social Constraints Scale-5 (SCS-5), Family Environment Scale (FES), and Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6). Multivariable logical regression was used to explore influencing factors. Pearson's correlation, hierarchical regression, and simple slope analysis were conducted to verify the role of self-efficacy. 71.6% of patients had depressive symptoms. Family contradiction (OR = 10.086), social constraints (OR = 2.522), social isolation (OR = 2.507), and high blood glucose (OR = 2.156) were risk factors of depressive symptoms. Family emotional expression (OR = 0.480), family intimacy (OR = 0.235), and self-efficacy (OR = 0.246) were protective factors against depressive symptoms. The interactive items interpretation quantity were as follows: Contradiction*Self-efficacy (ΔR2 = 2.3%, P < 0.001), Emotional expression*Self-efficacy (ΔR2 = 2.6%, P < 0.001), Intimacy*Self-efficacy (ΔR2 = 1.0%, P = 0.018), Social constraints*Self-efficacy (ΔR2 = 1.0%, P = 0.008), Social networks*Self-efficacy (ΔR2 = 1.0%, P = 0.010), Blood Glucose*Self-efficacy (ΔR2 = 0.6%, P = 0.023). The influence of independent variables on depressive symptoms was gradually decreased in the low, mean, and high groups of self-efficacy. Postoperative Chinese breast cancer survivors reported higher depressive symptoms. Social, family, and physiological factors could affect depressive symptoms, in which self-factor played moderator roles.

The Influence of Parental Education Level on Family Emotional Expression

With the development and progress of the times, people pay more and more attention to family education and family rearing style, but few scholars have singled out the study of family emotion expression from family rearing style. In this paper, OLS model is used to establish multiple regression equation, aiming at studying the influence of parents' education level on family emotional performance from both verbal and nonverbal aspects. The results show that parental education level has a significant effect on family emotional performance. Compared with the father, the mother's education level has a greater impact on the family emotional expression, this may be related to mother-child attachment. Therefore, parents should attach importance to the relationship between their educational background and family emotional expression, and fathers should show more emotional expression. This paper enriched the research on parental education level and family emotional performance, and helped parents understand the link between parental education level and family emotional performance from the theoretical level and the degree of influence.

Porodična emocionalna ekspresivnost kao osnova emocionalnog vaspitanja u porodici

The paper discusses the problem of family emotional expressiveness and its importance for emotional education in the family. Emotional expressiveness is explained as the way family members express positive and negative emotions in their interaction with children, more precisely as the general tendency of parents to express emotions in the family. The aim of this paper is to determine the emotional expressiveness of families and to look at the differences in relation to socio-demographic characteristics (gender of the child, family structure, parents' educational and employment status). The research subjects were parents of children aged 7-11 years. The FEQ family expressiveness scale (Halberstadt, 1986) was used as an instrument in the research. The general findings of the study confirm that positive-submissive emotions are most often expressed in families, followed by positive-dominant ones, while negative emotions are expressed rarely to occasionally. The obtained data indicate that positive-submissive emotions are more often expressed in single-parent families and families with employed mothers. The presented results indicate the importance of family expressiveness for emotional education in the family because children learn how to express their emotions by imitating their parents.

Diurnal Cortisol in Left-Behind Adolescents: Relations to Negative Family Expressiveness and Internalizing Problems.

Despite the accumulating evidence for increased risks for behavioral problems in left-behind adolescents in China, little research has explored their HPA axis functioning, which is hypothesized to play a central role in the association between early adversity and health. In the present study, we designed a longitudinal study to examine HPA axis function in left-behind adolescents and its mediating role in the association between family emotional expressiveness and internalizing problems. Participants were 81 adolescents (44 female; 37 male) aged 11–16 years. Salivary cortisol samples were collected six times a day for two consecutive days on regular school days. Negative family expressiveness (NFE) and internalizing problems were measured using self-report questionnaires. The results showed that NFE was negatively associated with diurnal cortisol, and diurnal cortisol was negatively associated with internalizing problems. Further analysis showed that diurnal cortisol secretion measured by AUC (area under the curve) mediated the association between NFE and internalizing problems. Our findings extended the existing literature about left-behind children via a psychoneuroendocrinological perspective, documenting the negative consequences of the family environment for youth health and development.

Social class and prosocial behavior in early adolescence: The moderating roles of family and school factors

ABSTRACT The association between prosocial behavior and adolescents’ social class—defined as one’s parents’ position in society assessed in terms of education, income, and occupation status—is far from conclusive and the moderators of the link have not been fully researched. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD) (N = 1,058), this study investigated the association between social class and 5th graders’ prosocial behavior, as well as the moderating roles of maternal sensitivity, positive family emotional expressiveness, teacher-student relationship, and peer support. The current research found that social class was positively associated with adolescents’ prosocial behavior, and the positive association between social class and prosocial behavior was less pronounced for adolescents with higher levels of maternal sensitivity, positive family emotional expressiveness, teacher-student relationship, and peer support than those with lower levels of maternal sensitivity, positive family emotional expressiveness, teacher-student relationship, and peer support. The present findings yield evidence on the negative influence of low social class on adolescents’ prosocial behavior, but this effect would be buffered by supportive and healthy relationships in family and school contexts.

The role of family expressiveness in American and Chinese adolescents' emotional experiences

AbstractTo understand the role of family emotional socialization across cultural contexts, this research examined the associations between family emotional expressiveness and early adolescents' emotions in the United States and China. Two times over the course of 1 year, 566 American (n = 331) and Chinese (n = 235) adolescents (age range: 11–14 years) reported on their family members' emotional expressiveness, which was further categorized into three facets (i.e., positive, negative dominant, and negative submissive family expressiveness), and their own experience of positive and negative emotions. In both countries, positive family expressiveness (e.g., expressing excitement) was associated with adolescents' experience of positive emotions 6 months later, above and beyond their prior positive emotional experience. A between‐country difference was evident in the association between positive family expressiveness and adolescents' experience of negative emotions, such that positive family expressiveness was associated with dampened negative emotions 6 months later among American but not Chinese adolescents. Negative dominant family expressiveness (e.g., expressing anger) was not associated with adolescents' emotional experience 6 months later in both countries. However, negative submissive family expressiveness (e.g., expressing sadness) foreshadowed reduced positive emotional experience only among American adolescents. Findings highlight the importance of culture in understanding the implications of family expressiveness for adolescents' emotional experiences.

The Relationship of Relatives’ Illness Perception, Expressed Emotion and Their Burden in Caring for Patients with Schizophrenia

Background: The chronic burden of care to a patient with schizophrenia which produce negative emotions. As a result of de-institutionalization, caregivers have greater burden for the care of their mentally ill relatives. Objective of this study was to explore the relationship of relatives’ illness perception, expressed emotion and their burden in caring for patients with schizophrenia. Design: This study followed a correlation descriptive research design. Setting: This study conducted at inpatient and outpatient psychiatric department of Tanta University Hospital. Subject: The study subjects consist of 100 relatives of patient with schizophrenia. Tools: Tool 1 consisted of 2 parts: Part 1 Socio-demographic and general characteristics of studied participants, Part 2 Illness Perception Questionnaire-Schizophrenia Carers Version (IPQ-SCV), Tool 2 Family Questionnaire (FQ), Tool 3 Caregiver Burden Interview. Results: it was found that the studied participants had poor illness perception total score, it was found that the studied subjects (47%) had high emotional over- involvement level while it was observed that the two thirds of the studied relatives (61%) had high level of family criticism. majority of studied participants had moderate level of family burden. Conclusion: The results concluded that there was a significant positive correlation between family illness perception and family expressed emotion, also there was a significant positive correlation between family emotional expression and family burden level. Recommendations: this study recommended future studies to investigate distress and burden among caregivers with high emotion expression for intervention, reducing family stress and burden.

Prevalence and associated factors of alexithymia among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong

Alexithymia (“no words for feelings”) is a personality construct characterized by an inability to identify, describe, and verbalize one's feelings, constricted imagination, and an externally oriented way of thinking. Alexithymia is commonly measured with self-report instruments. Data, in particular from Asian countries, regarding the epidemiology of alexithymia in adolescents are relatively limited. The objectives of this study were to examine the prevalence and explore the relationship between alexithymia, family emotional expressiveness, parental acceptance-rejection, and depression. A total of 1606 Chinese adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years old were recruited from 11 schools across the three major geographical regions of Hong Kong. A self-report questionnaire was administered. About 36% of adolescents were classified as alexithymic in the whole sample (males: 34.3%, females: 40.0%) and no gender differences were found. Adolescents with lower family emotional expressiveness and depression were more likely to report alexithymia. The alexithymia rate among Chinese adolescents was higher than in most of the existing studies. The association of alexithymia with diminished family emotional expressiveness underscores the relevance of targeting adolescents with low family emotional expressiveness, and depressive symptoms to increase their capacity to identify and communicate emotions in order to improve their psychological well-being.

Family emotional expression towards schizophrenic patients in Grhasia Mental Hospital Yogyakarta

This study aimed to identify the family emotional expressions towards patient with schizophrenia in Grhasia Mental Hospital Yogyakarta. The method of the study was Descriptive Study. The subjects were the family members of the patients with schizophrenia who visited the psychiatric clinic of Grhasia Mental Hospital Yogyakarta. The sample size was 45 respondents, which has been taken by the accidental sampling. The data were collected by questionnaire. The data were analyzed to determine frequency distribution of respondents’ characteristics and the levels of family emotional expressions. The results showed that most of the families (77,8%) who accompanied routine visited to the hospital were male, as parents or siblings respectively 33,3% and the fewest were couples (8,9%). Family age as many as 57,8% was in the range of 41-60 years and as many as 4,4% of those was aged 61 years and over. The majority of the family members or 34 respondents had high emotional expressions and only a small percentage or 11 respondents had low emotional expressions. Family members are expected to take a better care of schizophrenic patients by not frequently criticizing the patients and not showing too much emotional expression.

Investigation of the relationship between disease severity, caregiver burden and emotional expression in caregivers of children with cerebral palsy.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between the physical problems of children with CP and caregiving burden and the emotional expression characteristics of caregivers. The study included 144 caregivers of child with cerebral palsy and Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and Expressed Emotion Scale (EES) will be applied to the caregivers who will participate in the study. Disease severity of children with cerebral palsy will be evaluated by the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) and Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) in children with cerebral palsy. Communication Function Classification System (CFCS) will be used to examine the communication of children with their families. Accordingly, a positive, statistically significant, moderate correlation was found between the GMFCS, MACS, and CFCS scores and ZBI scores in patients with cerebral palsy (r ~ 0.50; p < 0.01). In this study, a positive, statistically significant but weak correlation was found between GMFCS, MACS, and CFCS scores and EES scores in patients with cerebral palsy (r ~ 0.30; p < 0.01). A statistically significant, moderate correlation was found between ZBI and EES (r ~ 0.50; p < 0.01). According to the results of our study, as motor skills and communication skills decrease, especially the burden of caregivers increases and the family's emotional expression processes are related to these variables. We think that in the long-term follow-up of children with CP, it may be useful to provide appropriate psychiatric support by evaluating caregivers appropriately.

Family emotional expressiveness and family structure

The present paper scrutinizes the relationship between family emotional expressiveness (i.e., the tendency to express dominant and/or submissive positive and negative emotions) and components of family structure as proposed in Olson?s Circumplex model (i.e., cohesion and flexibility, family communication, and satisfaction) in families with adolescents. The study was conducted on a sample of 514 Slovenian adolescents, who filled out two questionnaires: the Slovenian version of Family Emotional Expressiveness - FEQ and FACES IV. The results revealed that all four basic dimensions of family functioning were significantly associated with higher/more frequent expressions of positive submissive emotions, as well as with lower/less frequent expressions of negative dominant emotions. Moreover, expressions of negative submissive emotions explained a small, but significant amount of variance in three out of four family functioning variables (satisfaction, flexibility, and communication). The importance of particular aspects of emotional expressiveness for family cohesion, flexibility, communication, and satisfaction is discussed, and the relevance of present findings for family counselling is outlined.

Child and Family Emotional Functioning: A Cross-National Examination of Families from China and the United States

Scant research has examined links between particular emotion socialization processes and child emotion functioning cross-nationally. In this study, we assessed a sample of 55 families from the United States (U.S.; 28 boys and 27 girls) and 49 families from China (27 boys and 22 girls) on family emotional expressiveness and children’s emotional experiences and regulation. Results indicated that children and families from the U.S. reported greater emotional expressiveness than their Chinese counterparts. Children from the U.S. also reported greater undercontrolled emotion than Chinese youth. Family expression of positive emotion was related to effortful emotion regulation in U.S. youth only, whereas family expression of negative emotion was associated with undercontrolled emotion for both U.S. and Chinese children. Our findings advance context-specific models of emotional development by illustrating similarities and differences in emotional functioning among U.S. and Chinese families. From a clinical perspective, the findings suggest that practitioners should consider the cultural variations of emotion communication within families when conducting both assessment and therapy.

Marital Satisfaction, Family Emotional Expressiveness, Home Learning Environments, and Children's Emergent Literacy

The current study investigates associations among marital satisfaction, family emotional expressiveness, the home learning environment, and preschool‐aged children's emergent literacy skills among 385 Midwestern mothers and their children. Path analyses examined how marital satisfaction related to emotional expressiveness in the home and whether this path was associated with the home learning environment and children's literacy skills. Higher maternal satisfaction was associated with higher levels of positive and lower levels of negative family emotional expressiveness. Additionally, family emotional environments characterized by mothers with higher positive expression were related to better home learning environments, which in turn were associated with higher literacy skills in children. Study findings underscore the importance of marital and family processes when considering young children's academic development.

Parenting styles, parental response to child emotion, and family emotional responsiveness are related to child emotional eating

The aim of the present study was to examine the relations of parenting style, parent response to negative child emotion, and family emotional expressiveness and support to child emotional eating. Mothers ( N = 450) completed questionnaires and their 6–8-year-old children ( N = 450) were interviewed. Results showed that emotional eating was negatively predicted by authoritative parenting style and family open expression of affection and emotion, and positively predicted by parent minimizing response to child negative emotion. Results suggest the need for early prevention/intervention efforts directed to these parenting and family variables.

Physiology and functioning: Parents’ vagal tone, emotion socialization, and children’s emotion knowledge

This study examined relationships among parents’ physiological regulation, their emotion socialization behaviors, and their children’s emotion knowledge. Parents’ resting cardiac vagal tone was measured, and parents provided information regarding their socialization behaviors and family emotional expressiveness. Their 4- or 5-year-old children ( N = 42) participated in a laboratory session in which their knowledge of emotional facial expressions and situations was tested and their own resting vagal tone was monitored. Results showed that parents’ vagal tone was related to their socialization behaviors, and several parent socialization variables were related to their children’s emotion knowledge. These findings suggest that parents’ physiological regulation may affect the emotional development of their children by influencing their parenting behaviors.

Alexithymia among Orthodox Jews: The Role of Object Relations, Family Emotional Expressiveness, and the Presence of a Disabled Sibling

To what extent does the presence of a sibling with disabilities result in diminished capacity to experience and express emotionality? The purpose of this study was to discern whether the presence of a sibling with disabilities in Orthodox Jews promotes alexithymia over and above the hypothesized effects of psychological health in one's family of origin and level of object relations. Data analysis from 136 respondents showed that alexithymia was predicted by Object Relations (particularly Social Incompetence) and the emotional expressiveness of one's family of origin. Sibling disability did not predict alexithymia. It appears that the presence of a sibling with disabilities does not present a challenge to emotional expressiveness beyond the effects of familial and personality determinants. Results are discussed from the perspective of Object Relations theory in the context of the contemporary sociology of Orthodox Judaism, with a particular focus on the experience of having a sibling with disabilities. Clinical implications and suggestions for further study are presented.

Identification of Early Child and Family Risk Factors for Aggressive Victim Status in First Grade

This prospective investigation sought to discriminate children who were both aggressive towards and victimized by peers in the first grade, from those who were only aggressive, only victimized, or neither (i.e., socially adjusted), using early child and family risk factors. Two hundred thirty-eight children, their mothers, and teachers participated in a longitudinal study since birth. All three aggressor/victim subgroups showed greater temperamental dysregulation than the socially adjusted children, but only aggressive victims had significantly poorer social perception skills. Aggressive victims were distinguished from aggressors by greater exposure to maternal depression and from victims by lower levels of early inhibition, but they shared the experiences of negative family emotional expressiveness with aggressors and greater mother-child negativity with victims. The identification of early risk factors is crucial to prevention and early intervention efforts that have the potential to attenuate the long term emotional, social, and academic problems associated with aggressive victim status.