A study of expressed emotion in the parental primary carers of adolescents with intellectual impairment.

Expressed emotion (EE) was measured in the parental primary carer (carer) of 92 adolescents with intellectual impairment to examine its associated characteristics. High EE was mainly a result of high levels of emotional overinvolvement. High EE was associated with psychological illhealth, poor-quality marriage and poor practical social support of the carer, and psychiatric disorder in the adolescent with intellectual impairment. This suggests that EE may be a useful indicator of coping difficulties in these families. The subgroup of high EE emotional overinvolvement was associated with a carer with more psychological illhealth, a worse-quality marriage, less practical social support, greater professional support and an insecure style of respite care usage for an adolescent of greater intellectual impairment. The subgroup of criticism have an adolescent of less severe intellectual impairment, more behavioural disturbance and yet the carer has less professional support. Appreciation of the quality of the relationship of the carer with their dependent family member may enable greater understanding of how to improve the quality of life for both the carer and the cared for.