title: Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Greek version of the Family Questionnaire for assessing expressed emotion.
abstract: Expressed emotion (EE) has proved to be an established factor in short-term relapse in schizophrenia. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Family Questionnaire (FQ), a brief self-report questionnaire measuring the EE status of relatives of patients with schizophrenia in terms of criticism (CC) and emotional overinvolvement (EOI). The translated and adapted 20-item FQ was administered to 176 family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Caregivers' burden (Family Burden Scale) and psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire-28) were also evaluated. The findings indicated that the Greek version displays a two-factor structure with two subscales of EE-CC and EOI-with 10 items each, similarly to the original version. The convergent validity of the subscales was highly supported by correlations with caregivers' burden and psychological distress. The Cronbach's α coefficient measuring internal consistency for the two scales were 0.90 for CC and 0.82 for EOI. The test-retest correlation coefficients measuring reproducibility were 0.99 and 0.98 for CC and EOI, respectively. The Greek version of the FQ appears to be a valid and reliable instrument to be used in both research and clinical assessment of family EE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece; Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece. Electronic address: koutra.k@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koutra
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, Eginition Hospital, University of Athens, Athens, Greece; University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Economou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymnon, Greece.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Triliva
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Theano
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Roumeliotaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lionis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Alexandros N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Vgontzas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000451:nursing*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000451:nursing*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014177:Translations; D055815:Young Adult