Confirmatory factor analysis of the Level of Expressed Emotion scale in Chinese version

Objective Level of Expressed Emotion(LEE) scale is a self-assessment questionnaire for patients to assess the emotional expression of family members.The reliability and validity of this scale has been discussed and used in many areas of clinical in Abroad.Currently the LEE scale is introduced and combined with the cultural background for the revision and application only by Singapore and Hong Kong.Therefore,this study intends to explore the possibility of using the Chinese version of the LEE scale to predict the emotional expression of family members in psychiatric patients with chronic diseases,in order to predict and evaluate the emotional expression of family members in the clinical use of LEE in China,and to provide evidence for reducing family factors on the recurrence of disease. Methods Total 130 patients with mental disorders who meet the criteria of this study were assessed with the Chinese version of LEE scale,Family Assessment Device(FAD) scale and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale.Through factor analysis,reliability test and correlation analysis to compare the effectiveness of the Chinese version of LEE scale in clinical practice. Results The result of factor analysis of LEE had good construct validity of three subscales:LES(26 Items),INTR(10 Items) and IRR(7 Items).The 3 subscales have a high internal consistency(LES:α=0.91;INTR:α=0.6;C:α=0.59).Among subscales showed a significant positive correlation.At the same time,there are still have some differences in the type of the component and the number of items with the results of other studies.Therefore,the effectiveness of the clinical use of this scale should be further evaluated. Conclusion The 3 subscales of LEE have a higher reliability and validity for predicting the emotion expression of the family members in psychiatric disorders.But the content of the items still need to be further investigated.