Family predictors of the incidence of children's asthma symptoms: expressed emotion, medication, parent contact, and life events.

Self-report measures of both parents' expressed emotion, their time spent with their children, family life events, and children's medication compliance were obtained from 32 pairs of parents with a 5- to 12-year-old child with asthma and used to predict the number of the children's asthma-related medical contacts and school absences in the preceding year. Higher levels of fathers' expressed emotion, specifically critical comments, were associated with higher school absenteeism, and the amount of time fathers reported spending with their children on weekends was inversely related to the number of times children had an asthma-related medical contact. These findings were interpreted as reflecting the father's reactions to his child's asthma. Implications for intervention are discussed.