THE FAMILY ENVIRONMENT SCALE - COMPARISON WITH THE CONSTRUCT OF EXPRESSED EMOTION

The Family Environment Scale (FES) was completed by parents of 30 chil dren with conduct disorders (CD), 30 children with emotional disorders (ED), and 30 well-functioning controls. Parents were also interviewed and rated for Expressed Emotion (EE), and mothers completed the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). Clinical families had significantly lower ratings of Cohesion, Expressiveness, Intellectual-Cultural and Active -Recreational Orientation. These differences were not specific to eith er diagnostic group. Maternal Criticism was associated with reported c onflict in the CD group. The EE scales of Criticism and Warmth (absenc e of warmth) were correlated with child behaviour ratings in the CD gr oup, in contrast with FES sub-scales. Maternal scores of Cohesion were significantly associated with social competence in the ED and the con trol group. Maternal ratings of Conflict predicted dropping-out of tre atment (CD group), and ratings of Cohesion and Control had some value in predicting clinical outcome. The implications for the future use of the Family Environment Scale and other self-rated measures of family functioning are discussed.