Understanding the relationship between parental stress and psychosocial outcomes in siblings of children with special needs: The role of perceived expressed emotion

This thesis explores how parental stress relates to the psychological and behavioural outcomes of siblings of children with special needs. Specifically, it focuses on the mediating role of perceived expressed emotion, which reflects how siblings interpret their parents' emotional expressions. Data were collected from 154 families in Turkey, including mothers, fathers, and one sibling aged 11 to 18, through both online and physical forms. The constructs were assessed using the Parental Stress Scale (PSS), the Shortened Level of Expressed Emotion Scale (SLEES), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire – Youth Form (SDQ). Two simple mediation models were tested separately for maternal and paternal stress using Hayes PROCESS Model 4. The findings revealed that higher maternal stress was associated with greater sibling psychosocial difficulties through increased perceived maternal expressed emotion. For fathers, the indirect effect through perceived expressed emotion was also significant, while the total and direct effects were not. However, when parental psychological symptoms were included as covariates, the indirect effects in both models became nonsignificant. These findings highlight the importance of emotional dynamics within the family system and draw attention to perceived parental emotion as a potential pathway linking parental stress to sibling adjustment.