Does mothers’ Expressed Emotion, assessed by the Three Minute Speech Sample during pregnancy, predict resistant behavior at 14 months of age? A pilot study within the Generation R study.

In this study the possible relationship between mothers’ Expressed Emotion (EE) during pregnancy and their children’s resistant behavior at 14 months of age is investigated (n = 50). It was expected that children whose mothers scored high on Expressed Emotion would be more likely to display resistant behavior during the Strange Situation than children whose mothers scored low on Expressed Emotion. A short version of the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS), the Three Minute Speech Sample (TMSS), was used to measure Expressed Emotion and resistant behavior was observed during a short version of the Strange Situation Procedure. A simple linear regression analysis showed no predictive value for Expressed Emotion regarding resistant behavior, however, it was significantly related to whether the pregnancy was planned or not. These results could be due to the relatively small sample size of 50. It could also mean that the TMSS is not the right instrument to measure EE.