The Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) in developmental research: A systematic review of the link between FMSS-expressed emotion and later child psychopathology, and an empirical study investigating the validity of the FMSS-coherence in a sample at risk for the development of significant emotional and behavioural problems

Jug, Charlotte 2020. The Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) in developmental research: A systematic review of the link between FMSS-expressed emotion and later child psychopathology, and an empirical study investigating the validity of the FMSS-coherence in a sample at risk for the development of significant emotional and behavioural problems. ClinPsy Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

Preview	PDF (DClinPsy Thesis) - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (1MB) | Preview
	PDF (Cardiff University Electronic Publication Form) - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only Download (359kB)

Abstract

Early life experiences in the context of the parent-child relationship have been shown to influence a child’s emotional and behavioural development. The development of emotional and behavioural difficulties in childhood are often termed as “internalizing” and “externalizing” problems respectively, and research shows children exhibiting such difficulties are at a greater risk of developing psychological difficulties, which can persist across the lifespan (e.g. Campbell, Shaw & Gilliom, 2000). Psychological difficulties can have a significant negative impact on a person’s quality of life, their relationships, and their ability to function in society. It is therefore important to identify risk factors for the development of childhood emotional and behavioural difficulties, so that preventative interventions can be developed and implemented. Two such risk factors identified in developmental research have been “expressed emotion” and “narrative coherence”. “Expressed emotion” describes the levels of criticism, hostility and emotional overinvolvement expressed in the speech and tone of caregivers. Although expressed emotion originated in adult psychiatry, it has been extensively investigated as a risk factor for child psychopathology. “Narrative coherence” is a concept that stems from attachment theory, and describes how flexible, authentic, balanced and consistent a parent’s spoken narrative is about their child (Oppenheim, 2006). Research has identified narrative coherence as a potential predictor of disrupted parent-child relationships, with negative consequences on child social and behavioural adjustment (Sher-Censor, 2015). The Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) is a method that can be used to measure both expressed emotion (FMSS-EE; Magaña et al., 1986) and narrative coherence (FMSS-Coherence; SherCensor & Yates, 2010) . The FMSS requires parents to speak about their child and their relationship with their child for five minutes. The speech is then transcribed, and can be coded using different protocols to calculate the level of expressed emotion or narrative coherence in their speech. Given the brief time involved in administering and coding the FMSS, and therefore its cost-effective nature, it has great utility in the research of the development of child psychopathology and potentially in clinical practice. The systematic review summarises and assesses the quality of the evidence-base for the predictive impact of maternal FMSS-EE on child emotional and behavioural development. The review focuses solely on studies that investigate the impact of maternal FMSS-EE on child development over time. Five out of eleven studies identified by this review provide evidence for the predictive impact of maternal FMSS-EE on child psychopathology, after controlling for the impact of other influential factors, such as family socio-economic status, for example. However, the predictive impact of maternal FMSS-EE appeared to reduce in studies that controlled for the potential impact of maternal psychopathology on child development. The review identified the negative components of maternal FMSS-EE, such as criticism, as a potential risk factor for the development of child emotional and behavioural difficulties. The research and clinical implications in terms of potential preventative interventions are discussed, in light of these findings. The empirical study investigates the validity of the FMSS-Coherence method, as a relatively recently developed, attachment-informed, dichotomous measure of coherence. It is the first study to use the measure in an ‘at-risk’ sample of children referred by teachers, due to concerns about their emotional and behavioural development. Through investigation of the relationship between parental FMSSCoherence and a range of other established measures of the quality of the family environment, child social-behavioural adjustment and child cognitive empathy, this study provides partial evidence for the validity of FMSS-Coherence in this sample. The prevalence of “coherent” parents was observed to be lower in the at-risk sample, in comparison to community samples used in previous research. An association was found between parental FMSS-Coherence and parent-reported family environment and parent-reported parenting quality, whereby coherent parents were more likely to report a cohesive home environment and less hostility in their parenting. The children of coherent parents had less parent-reported (but not teacher-reported) social and behavioural developmental difficulties. Furthermore, children of coherent parents had superior child cognitive empathy ability, reflected in their increased ability to recognise fear and low intensity emotions. In light of these findings, the direction of future research is discussed in order to build upon the evidence-base for the FMSSCoherence measure. Avenues for clinical applicability are explored.

Item Type:	Thesis (DClinPsy)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	29 October 2020
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2021 01:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/135994

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item