Maternal expressed emotion towards children with and without learning disabilities

Abstract

Parents who have children with learning disabilities are often reported, in published literature, to be more stressed than parents of typically developing children.  However, there is much variation in parental levels of stress.  As yet, there has been no analysis to identify predictors of negative emotional relationships or intrusive over concern in mothers of children with learning disabilities and, how a negative emotional relationship might influence child outcome.  The aim of this thesis was to begin such an analysis. 

Firstly, this thesis assesses reliability of the measures to be used within families of children with learning disabilities.  Previous research has identified a lack of reliability when transferring the use of measures to parents of children with learning disabilities.  Secondly, this thesis explores what variables are associated with negative maternal Expressed Emotion (a measure of the emotional relationship between mother and child) and whether there are any differences in maternal Expressed Emotion between siblings with and without learning disabilities.  Thirdly, an exploration is undertaken to identify factors that may account for the differences found between siblings.  Lastly, this thesis identifies some tentative predictors of the relationship between parenting behaviour, parenting stress and child outcome.

The research within this thesis finds that there are several variables associated with negative Expressed Emotion in mothers of children with learning disabilities.  Crossed lagged correlations challenge previous predictions of parent-child relationships.  The implications of these results are discussed.

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