Frontiers in Psychology (Aug 2021)

Validation of the Structured Interview for the Assessment of Expressed Emotion (E5) in a Sample of Adolescents and Young Adults From the General Population

  • Jose-Antonio Muela-Martinez,
  • Lourdes Espinosa-Fernandez,
  • Luis-Joaquin Garcia-Lopez,
  • Maria-Eva Martin-Puga

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.723323
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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Expressed emotion (EE) is an index of significant others’ attitudes, feelings, and behavior toward an identified patient. EE was originally conceptualized as a dichotomous summary index. Thus, a family member is rated low or high on how much criticism, hostility, and emotional overinvolvement (EOI) s/he expresses toward an identified patient. However, the lack of brief, valid measures is a drawback to assess EE. To cover this gap, the E5 was designed. The objective of this study is to provide psychometric properties of a recent measured in adolescents to be used to tap perceived high levels of EE. The sample was composed by 2,905 adolescents aged from 11–19years; 57% girls. Results demonstrate good factor structure, reliability, construct validity and invariance across gender and age revealed a good fit. As a result, E5 is a brief, valid and reliable measure for assessing expressed emotion in parents of adolescent children.

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