NCJ Number
217780
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2007 Pages: 396-407
Date Published
March 2007
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study assessed mothers' relational schemas (RSs) regarding their adolescent children with the Family Affective Attitude Rating Scale (FAARS) and compared its performance to that of the FMSS-EE (five-minute speech sample-expressed emotion) coding system; the internal consistency and validity of positive RS and negative RS scales were also evaluated.
Abstract
Consistent with hypotheses, the training, coding, time, and material costs were significantly less for the FAARS coding system than for FMSS-EE coding. Interrater reliabilities were consistently high, and the FAARS' negative RS and positive RS scales showed acceptable internal consistency. In the current sample, 50 percent of early-starters (beginning antisocial behavior in early adolescence) had mothers with high EE ratings, compared to 20 percent of mothers of successful adolescents. Similarly, 50 percent of mothers of early-starters had high negative RSs, and 60 percent had low positive RSs. This contrasted with parents of successful children; 75 percent had low negative RSs, and only 40 percent had low positive RSs. Apparently the combination of maternal negative RSs and the parent-adolescent coercive process contributes to higher levels of adolescent antisocial behavior; whereas, low maternal negative RS may be a protective factor against the development of antisocial behavior, even in families in which coercive interactions are present. Data were collected from a multiethnic subsample of early-starting antisocial (n=20) and successful (n=20) urban adolescents and their families, using direct observations of parent-adolescent interactions, 5-minute speech samples, and questionnaires. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 45 references