Expressed emotion and social networks of parents of schizophrenic patients.

This study considered the relationship between the personal networks of parents of schizophrenic patients and ratings of their level of expressed emotion towards the patient. Our initial hypothesis was that parents with high expressed emotion would be more isolated from an effective social support system. We found that the size of parental networks did correlate with the length of the patient's illness, with smaller networks associated with longer illnesses. There was no connection between overall ratings of parental expressed emotion and the size or quality of their social networks. However, the raw score of one component of expressed emotion, emotional over-involvement, did correlate with several network variables, indicating that parents who are over-involved with the patient are also more involved with their networks rather than being isolated.