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The Nithsdale Schizophrenia Surveys

XIII. Parental Rearing Patterns, Current Symptomatology and Relatives' Expressed Emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. G. McCreadie ,
D. J. Williamson ,
R. W. B. Athawes ,
M. A. Connolly  and
D. Tilak-Singh
R. G. McCreadie*
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital
D. J. Williamson
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital
R. W. B. Athawes
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital
M. A. Connolly
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital
D. Tilak-Singh
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital
*
Dr R. G. McCreadie, Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries, DG1 4TG
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Abstract

Background

A population of adult schizophrenic patients was assessed to discover how the patients viewed their childhood, whether their view differed from non-schizophrenic adults, and to determine any association between parental rearing practices as perceived by the patient, childhood personality as perceived by the mother, and current symptoms. Type and level of expressed emotion shown by parents towards patients was also examined.

Method

Parental attitudes, as perceived by 50 schizophrenic patients, were assessed by the EMBU scale. Patients' premorbid personality and social adjustment were assessed through interviews with patients' mothers by the Scale for the Assessment of Premorbid Schizoid and Schizotypal Traits and the Premorbid Social Adjustment Scale. Current symptoms were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and Subjective Deficit Syndrome Scale.

Results

Patients saw little difference between fathers' and mothers' attitudes. There was a positive correlation between parental rejection and overprotection, and a negative correlation between rejection and warmth. There were no significant correlations between parental rearing attitudes and patients' childhood personality; there was a significant correlation between parental attitudes and current symptoms. Rejection and overprotection were associated with more severe, warmth with less severe symptoms, especially so for positive schizophrenic symptoms and general psychopathology. Although there was no association between the general level of expressed emotion shown by the parent towards the adult patient, and patients' perceived parental rearing attitudes, parents with high expressed emotion on the basis of hostility had higher rejection scores on the parental rearing attitudes scale.

Conclusions

Schizophrenic patients saw their parents as showing much less warmth, and the severity of current symptoms was associated with perceived parental rearing attitudes. The hostility component of high expressed emotion may be a parental trait which exists before the illness begins.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 165 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 347 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994 

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