Weight loss maintenance as an aspect of family emotion and process.

The Expressed Emotion Index (EE) has been used with a high degree of success in predicting relapse of psychiatric patients in Great Britain. The present study examined the usefulness of EE as a predictor of weight loss maintenance in women in the United States. In a sample of 28, with a relapse rate of 50 per cent, EE correctly predicted maintenance for 78.5 per cent of the cases. A more economical, paper-and-pencil test of marital relationship (Relationship Style Inventory) correlated significantly with EE (r = 0.64) but did not successfully predict weight maintenance (r = 0.29).