Assessing expressed emotion in mothers of children with autism: the Autism-Specific Five Minute Speech Sample.
BACKGROUND
Expressed emotion (EE) is a measure of family emotional climate found to be predictive of symptom levels in a range of psychiatric, medical, and developmental disorders, including autism.


METHODS
Employing data from 104 mothers of children with autism, this study examines the Autism-Specific Five Minute Speech Sample (AFMSS), a modified EE coding system based on the widely used Five Minute Speech Sample (Magana et al., 1986).


RESULTS
With the exception of one EE component, emotional over-involvement, the revised coding system demonstrated adequate internal consistency and good to excellent inter-rater and code-recode reliability. It also demonstrated acceptable validity, based on its significant correlations with factors linked to EE in previous research. Regression analyses also indicated AFMSS-EE to be a significant predictor of child social competence, but not child problem behaviors.


CONCLUSIONS
While further testing is required, the AFMSS appears to be a useful method of assessing EE within the context of parenting children with autism and related disorders.
Benson
Paul R
PR
Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125, USA. paul.benson@umb.edu
Daley
Dave
D
Karlof
Kristie L
KL
Robison
Dorothy
D
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012944:Social Support; D013060:Speech; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires