Parental expressed emotion and psychophysiological reactivity in an adolescent sample at risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

The correspondence between interview-assessed parental emotional attitudes toward a particular offspring (expressed emotion [EE]) and the psychophysiological reactivity of both parents and their children during a series of direct family interactions was investigated for a sample of 52 disturbed but nonpsychotic adolescents (aged 14–29 yrs). Parents who expressed an excessive number of critical comments during the interview were designated as high EE, and the remainder were designated as low EE. Both high-EE parents and their adolescent offspring became significantly more psychophysiologically reactive as the 1st of 2 family confrontations in which they participated progressed. Adolescents also showed greater arousal when anticipating interactions with a high-EE parent when that parent was first in the experimental sequence. These results are combined with those of a previous study by the authors and J. A. Doane (see record 1984-06985-001) to support the notion that the EE measure is marking clearly defined family emotional climates that appear to be related to the subsequent onset of schizophrenia spectrum disorders in this adolescent sample. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental affective style risk and the family system: A social relations model analysis.

Social relations model analysis was used to clarify family dynamics associated with parental affective style, an index of parent-to-child behavior associated with severe psychopathology in the child. Results from 70 families who had sought clinical services for an adolescent family member (39 girls and 31 boys) suggest (1) that adolescents elicit the negative parental affective style that puts them at risk and (2) that elicitation of negative parental affect is strongly tied to adolescents' expression of negative affect toward their parents (i.e., a reciprocity effect). The findings support the views that children contribute to their own risk of psychopathology and that parent–child behavior ought to be interpreted in the broader context of the family system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring alcohol and cannabis use disorders in an adolescent clinical sample.

The measurement of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III-Revised (DSM-III-R) alcohol and cannabis use disorders with a new structured adolescent diagnostic interview, the Adolescent Diagnostic Interview (ADI), is described. 276 Ss (aged 12–19 yrs) were administered the ADI while receiving assessments at adolescent drug abuse facilities. Results pertaining to interrater agreements, test–retest reliability, concurrent validity, and criterion validity suggest that the interview offers a psychometrically sound approach to the measurement of alcohol and cannabis use disorders in adolescent clients. Further diagnostic research needs and limitations of the present study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The predictive utility of expressed emotion in schizophrenia: an aggregate analysis

We analysed aggregate data from 25 studies linking Expressed Emotion (EE) and schizophrenia. We had access to original data sets from 17 studies, and used published data from the remainder. This provided us with 1346 cases from around the world. The association of EE with relapse was overwhelming, and was maintained whatever the geographical location. The predictive capacity of EE was virtually identical in men and women. While high contact with a high EE relative increased the risk of relapse, the opposite was true in low EE households. Medication and EE were independently related to relapse, and thus EE status has no bearing on the decision to prescribe. Our findings were confirmed using log-linear analysis.     

Attribution and expressed emotion in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 101(2) of Journal of Abnormal Psychology (see record 2008-10481-001). An incorrect sentence was published. The sentence that ends the fourth paragraph on p. 547 ought to read: A more recent onset of illness would be expected to produce more unstable attributions, and more disturbed behavior (particularly involving violence toward the relative) would be expected to produce attributions that were more internal and personal to the patient but more external and uncontrollable as regards the relative.] Indexes of expressed emotion (EE) in 58 relatives of patients with schizophrenia were related to those relatives' spontaneously expressed causal beliefs about the illness and about related symptoms and behaviors. Relatives made attributions predominantly to factors external, universal, and uncontrollable from their own perspective, and to factors internal, universal, and uncontrollable from the patient's perspective. Low-EE relatives were similar in their attributions to emotionally overinvolved relatives. Compared with these 2 groups, critical and/or hostile relatives made more attributions to factors personal to and controllable by the patient. Subsequent analyses suggested that hostile relatives were further characterized by making more attributions to factors internal to the patient and by making attributions with fewer causal elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attributional analysis of expressed emotion in Mexican-American families with schizophrenia.

In this study we tested an attributional model of expressed emotion (EE) among Mexican-American families. A sample of 46 key family members of schizophrenic patients was measured on 3 dimensions: affect toward patient, controllability attributions, and level of EE. Consistent with an attributional model, it was found that high EE families (defined on the basis of critical comments) viewed the illness and associated symptoms as residing within the patient's personal control, more so than did low EE families. Also, attributions held by family members were to be related to their affective reactions. Specifically, family members who perceived the patient as having control over the symptoms of schizophrenia tended to express greater negative emotions such as anger and annoyance toward the patient than did family members who viewed the symptoms as beyond the patient's personal control. An examination of the types of affects found and their relationship to EE status is discussed, along with implications for this research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychometrically matched visual-processing tasks in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Patients with schizophrenia show deficits in visual perception and working memory, but the relationship between these deficits has not been characterized with psychometrically matched tasks. The authors administered 2 visual discrimination and 6 recognition tasks to 43 schizophrenia spectrum patients and 22 nonpsychiatric subjects. When performing difficulty-matched tasks, spectrum subjects showed more severe impairments for motion compared with form processing. When tasks were matched on true score variance, spectrum subjects exhibited worse performance on both form and motion discrimination, and a differential deficit in motion recognition with a short display duration and long interstimulus interval. These results provide evidence of differential deficits in visual processing in schizophrenia that appear to be dependent on the temporal characteristics of the tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive distortions and adolescent affective disorder. Validity of the CNCEQ in an inpatient sample. Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire

Despite a proliferation of recent research examining childhood and adolescent depression, the area still lags behind the adult depression field, particularly in the investigation of cognitive correlates of affective psychopathology. To advance cognitive research with youth, the Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire (CNCEQ) was developed to provide a measure of cognitive distortions or errors in children and adolescents. Yet, few studies have employed the CNCEQ and no evidence exists supporting the validity of its four component cognitive error scales. The purpose of the present study was to examine the construct validity of the CNCEQ and its constituent scales through the use of factor analysis and criterion-group comparisons. Groups of adolescent psychiatric inpatients, diagnosed as affective or disruptive disordered, completed the CNCEQ following admission. Results failed to support the implicit four-factor structure of the CNCEQ, instead suggesting the appropriateness of a single-factor solution labeled "negative thinking." Despite no diagnostic group differences on the CNCEQ total or other scale scores, affective disordered patients evinced more cognitive errors on the Overgeneralizing scale. Findings suggest that the CNCEQ in its current stage of development holds promise, yet requires refinement to produce a valid measure of cognitive functioning in youth.     

Parental management of adolescent peer relationships in context: The role of parenting style.

Three hundred 9th-graders and their best friends participated in this short-term longitudinal study. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Parental Management of Peers Inventory (N. Mounts, 2000) suggested that the 4-factor structure provided a good fit to the data. Significant differences in adolescents' perceptions of parental management of peers occurred across 4 parenting style groups. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relation among 5 aspects of parental management of peers and adolescents' Time 1 drug use, friends' Time 1 drug use, and adolescents' Time 2 drug use. The parental management styles of monitoring, guiding, prohibiting, and supporting all had significant paths in the model, whereas neutrality was not significant. Multiple group comparisons were used to examine whether parenting style moderates the relation between parental management of peers and the drug use outcomes. Parenting style functioned as a moderator for 7 of the paths in the model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aberrant semantic and affective processing in people at risk for psychosis.

Semantic and affective processing were examined in people at risk for psychosis. The participants were 3 groups of college students: 41 people with elevated Perceptual Aberration and Magical Ideation (PerMag) scores, 18 people with elevated Social Anhedonia (SocAnh) scores, and 100 control participants. Participants completed a single-word, continuous presentation pronunciation task that included semantically related words, affectively valenced words, and semantically unrelated and affectively neutral words. PerMag participants exhibited increased semantic priming and increased sensitivity to affectively valenced primes. SocAnh participants had increased sensitivity to affectively valenced targets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring self-critical and interpersonal preoccupations in an adolescent inpatient sample.

The validity of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire—Adolescent version (DEQ–A, S. Blatt et al., 1992) in an inpatient sample (N?=?823; 414 girls) was examined. Specific hypotheses addressed the distinctiveness, concurrent validity, state vs trait properties, and predictive validity of the Interpersonal and Self-Criticism scales. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) showed that observed responses to a subset of items (the most discriminating of the 2 scales in the original solution) better fit a model positing separate Interpersonal and Self-Criticism factors, than one positing 1 Dysphoric Concerns factor. Cross-sectional analyses relating unit-weight Interpersonal and Self-Critical scales, developed from the CFA results, to Personality and Depressive Symptom factors supported the scales' concurrent validity. Also, analyses using data from 92 patients collected at 2 or 3 times during the hospital stay showed that the underlying constructs assessed by these scales have both state and trait properties and that antecedent measures of self-criticism can predict later measures of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributional style as a risk marker of genetic effects for adolescent depressive symptoms.

Genetic effects on adolescent depression have been consistently reported, but little is known about mediating pathways from the distal genotype to resultant behavioral symptoms. Identifying intermediate risk markers may provide clues on these pathways. In the present study, longitudinal twin and sibling data were used to address 3 issues pertaining to attributional style as a putative marker of genetic risk for adolescent depression: state independence by assessing predictive effects between attributional style and depressive symptoms, heritability of attributional style at different time points, and genetic links between attributional style and depressive symptoms characterizing concurrent and longitudinal associations. The authors further examined whether these predictive and genetic links varied across levels of stress, age, and gender. Negative attributions preceded, co-occurred with, and followed symptoms. The predictive association between earlier negative attributions and later depressive symptoms did not differ by stress, age, or gender. Attributional style was moderately heritable at both time points. Genetic links with concurrent and prospective depressive symptoms were larger in individuals reporting higher levels of stress, who were older and female. Implications for attributional style as a marker reflecting genetic risks are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia and affective disorders: Behavioral correlates of diagnostic and demographic variables.

Time sampled observations of objectively defined ward behaviors in 116 schizophrenic, affective, and schizoaffective patients during baseline and medication periods revealed that schizophrenics displayed less scanning, social interaction, participation, and laughing/smiling. S. E. Tureff's (1978) Observational Record of Inpatient Behavior was used. The behavioral measures were relatively insensitive to demographic variables and strongly dependent on environmental context, but the measures did not change greatly over time for the major diagnostic categories, in spite of pharmacological interventions that included therapeutic doses of antipsychotic, antidepressant, and antimanic drugs. However, within diagnostic categories, patient clusters were extracted on the basis of amount and direction of behavior change, and for the affective patients, differential change was predictable from baseline response frequencies. Findings are discussed in terms of their potential usefulness for exploring dose-response and rate-dependence effects of psychotropic drugs in clinical populations and in terms of their potential for contributing to the resolution of the responder–nonresponder controversy in pharmacopsychiatry. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid adjustment and affective expression in schizophrenia.

Randomly selected 2 samples composed of 25 process and 25 reactive schizophrenics. There were no significant differences among the groups either in mean age or education. Mmpi deviation scores were obtained for each s by subtracting s's mean clinical scale score from each of the 9 mmpi clinical scales. Reactive ss had significantly (p     

Attention to gaze and emotion in schizophrenia.

Objective: Individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty interpreting social and emotional cues such as facial expression, gaze direction, body position, and voice intonation. Nonverbal cues are powerful social signals but are often processed implicitly, outside the focus of attention. The aim of this research was to assess implicit processing of social cues in individuals with schizophrenia. Method: Patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and matched controls performed a primary task of word classification with social cues in the background. Participants were asked to classify target words (LEFT/RIGHT) by pressing a key that corresponded to the word, in the context of facial expressions with eye gaze averted to the left or right. Results: Although facial expression and gaze direction were irrelevant to the task, these facial cues influenced word classification performance. Participants were slower to classify target words (e.g., LEFT) that were incongruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the right) compared to target words (e.g., LEFT) that were congruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the left), but this only occurred for expressions of fear. This pattern did not differ for patients and controls. Conclusion: The results showed that threat-related signals capture the attention of individuals with schizophrenia. These data suggest that implicit processing of eye gaze and fearful expressions is intact in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and behavioral vulnerabilities associated with risk status for eating disorders in adolescent girls.

Presents 1st-yr cross-sectional findings from a study of the development of eating disorders. 937 adolescent female 7th–10th graders completed measures that included information on personality, self-concept, eating patterns, and attitudes. A risk status score was calculated on the basis of comprehensive information regarding Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III-Revised (DSM-III-R) eating disorders criteria and other weight and attitudinal data. All personality measures showed significant differences according to risk, based on S classification into high, moderate, and mild risk status and comparison groups. Early puberty was not associated with increased risk. The strongest predictor variables for risk were body dissatisfaction, negative emotionality, and lack of interoceptive awareness. The possible diathesis of personality including temperamental factors in the later development of an eating disorder is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental negative affect and adolescent efficacy for diabetes management.

The authors investigated whether parental perceptions of adolescent efficacy are colored by parental negative affect and are associated with adolescents’ self-perceptions of efficacy for diabetes management. Adolescents (n = 183, M age = 12.53) with Type 1 diabetes and their mothers and fathers separately reported perceptions of adolescents’ efficacy for diabetes management and parents reported their own negative affect (depressed mood and trait anxiety). glycosolated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels were obtained from medical records. The results indicated that parental negative affect was associated with parental perceptions of poorer adolescent efficacy beyond the association of HbA1c scores. The relationship between fathers’ negative affect and adolescents’ self-efficacy was mediated by fathers’ perceptions of adolescent efficacy. The results suggest that parental negative affect may negatively color their views of adolescents’ efficacy and, in the case of fathers’ beliefs, may relate to adolescent self-efficacy. Parental negative affect should be considered when evaluating perceptions of adolescents’ efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative disturbance in schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorders, and major affective disorders: Comparisons between hospitalization and 1-year follow-up.

Word-association performance of 71 Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed schizophrenic, schizoaffective, and affective disorder patients was assessed shortly after hospital admission to evaluate the diagnostic specificity of associative disturbance. The same Ss were assessed again 1 yr after discharge to investigate the longitudinal course of word-association behavior. Data regarding rehospitalization were included in the analyses of 4 primary word-association indices. Results indicate that thought disorder was not distinctively schizophrenic and that associative thought disorder was more characteristically associated with rehospitalization for affective disorder patients than for other diagnostic groups. Arousal and cognitive control mechanisms are discussed. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Backward masking as a measure of slow processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Three groups of hospitalized adolescents (mean age 15.1 yrs; schizophrenics, schizotypal personalities, and borderline personality adolescent adjustment reactions) with 10 Ss in each group were compared for their ability to identify masked and unmasked stimuli. Results reveal that the schizophrenics required longer minimum exposure durations for criterion identification of unmasked stimuli. Under conditions of visual backward masking, however, schizotypal personalities as well as schizophrenics showed a relative deficit. Results support L. L. Heston's (see record 1971-10373-001) notion that schizophrenia spectrum disorders may be different degrees of expression of the same underlying defect. Previous results with visual backward masking in adults are also extended to adolescents. Findings are consistent with a slow information processing hypothesis for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal associative disturbances in children at high risk for schizophrenia.

Analyzed single-word and continuous association test behaviors of children at high (207 Ss) and low (104 Ss) risk for schizophrenia. A comparison was also made between test scores of those high-risk Ss who later became schizophrenic and scores of others who did not. Although high-risk Ss exhibited more deviant associations than low-risk Ss, premorbid associative disturbance did not characterize those who later became schizophrenic. These findings are not supportive of learning theories of associative disturbance. When combined with recent evidence showing that degree of associative disturbance at initial breakdown is not predictive of chronicity or outcome, these findings call for a reevaluation of the central character of associative disturbance in schizophrenia. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)