The importance of family for psychological symptomatology in non-clinical population: expressed emotion and perceived control from mother

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to establish whether parental expressed emotion and perceived maternal psychological and behavioral control predict symptoms of depression, anxiety, and aggression and the level of general psychological symptomatology in healthy university students. Also, it was aimed to identify the type of relationships existing between the variables expressed emotion and perceived maternal control. Method: Beck Depression, Beck Anxiety, Buss-Perry Aggression Inventories, Shortened Level of Expressed Emotion Scale in Adolescents, Psychological Control Scale–Youth Self Report, Parental Monitoring Scale” (mother forms), and a Sociodemographic Data Form were administered to 378 volunteer undergraduate students (260 females, 118 males) at a public university in Ankara. Results: Results showed that expressed emotion and perceived maternal psychological control significantly predicted symptoms of depression, anxiety, and aggression and the level of psychological symptomatology positively, while maternal behavioral control significantly predicted aggression symptoms negatively. When all three variables were included, each one of them significantly predicted depressive symptoms. Maternal psychological and behavioral control significantly predicted anxiety symptoms. Expressed emotion and maternal psychological control significantly predicted aggression symptoms and expressed emotion significantly predicted the level of general psychological symptomatology. Conclusion: The results of this study were largely consistent with the literature. For the first time in Turkey, we reported that expressed emotion predicted psychological symptomatology in a healthy population.