Despite a strong connection between family environment and mood symptoms in youth, little research to date has examined potential underlying mechanisms. We propose an etiological model investigating how parenting (i.e., expressed emotion, or EE) affects youth depression by shaping their emotion regulation abilities. Forty-six youth and caregivers participated in this cross-sectional study. Family environment was assessed using the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) and the Levels of Expressed Emotion Scale (LEE). The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Children’s Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) were used to assess youth emotion regulation and depressive symptoms, respectively. Analyses demonstrated no significant relationships between type of reporter (i.e., independent rater, parent, youth) of parental EE and criticism. Mediation analyses suggested that youth-reported parental EE predicted greater levels of youth depressive symptoms, and that this association was mediated by emotion regulation. This study has direct clinical implications, elucidating the importance of strengthening positive parent–child communication to support the development of emotion regulation skills and psychological well-being for youth.

尽管家庭环境和青年人的情绪症状之间有很强的联系，但迄今为止，很少有研究检查潜在的潜在机制。我们提出一种病因模型，研究养育子女（即表达的情感或EE）如何通过塑造青年人的情绪调节能力来对其产生影响。46名青年和照顾者参加了这项横断面研究。使用五分钟语音样本（FMSS）和表达情绪量表（LEE）评估家庭环境。情绪调节困难量表（DERS）和儿童抑郁评定量表修订版（CDRS-R）分别用于评估青少年情绪调节量和抑郁症状。分析表明，父母EE的报告者类型（即独立评估者，父母，青年）与批评之间没有显着关系。中介分析表明，青年报告的父母EE预测青年抑郁症状的水平更高，并且这种关联是由情绪调节介导的。这项研究具有直接的临床意义，阐明了加强积极的亲子沟通以支持青少年情绪调节技能和心理健康发展的重要性。