Caregiver Expressed Emotion and Pediatric Asthma: A Call for Culturally Specific Adaptations

Expressed emotion is the affective attitudes and behaviors of an individual toward another. In this preliminary study, we described expressed emotion among caregivers of children with asthma living in low-income urban area and evaluated its association with child asthma control. Forty-one children (90.2% African American/Black) and their caregivers participated. Measures included the Childhood Asthma Control Test and the Five-Minute Speech Sample coded for overall expressed emotion, emotional over-involvement, and criticism. Most caregivers were rated borderline (31.7%) or high (48.8%) for expressed emotion, borderline (31.7%) or high (39.0%) for emotional overinvolvement, and low for criticism (73.2%). The association between criticism and asthma control neared statistical significance [U(N_low = 30, N_B/high = 11) = 100, z = -1.922, P = 0.055]. Findings suggest an examination into expressed emotion coding procedures for caregivers in low-income urban areas, and culturally specific adaptations may be necessary. Future research should confirm findings in a larger sample and consider how parental criticism affects children's asthma management.