scholarly journals Facial emotion recognition in adopted children

Author(s):  
Amy L. Paine ◽  
Stephanie H. M. van Goozen ◽  
Daniel T. Burley ◽  
Rebecca Anthony ◽  
Katherine H. Shelton

AbstractChildren adopted from public care are more likely to experience emotional and behavioural problems. We investigated two aspects of emotion recognition that may be associated with these outcomes, including discrimination accuracy of emotions and response bias, in a mixed-method, multi-informant study of 4-to-8-year old children adopted from local authority care in the UK (N = 42). We compared adopted children’s emotion recognition performance to that of a comparison group of children living with their birth families, who were matched by age, sex, and teacher-rated total difficulties on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, N = 42). We also examined relationships between adopted children’s emotion recognition skills and their pre-adoptive histories of early adversity (indexed by cumulative adverse childhood experiences), their parent- and teacher-rated emotional and behavioural problems, and their parents’ coded warmth during a Five Minute Speech Sample. Adopted children showed significantly worse facial emotion discrimination accuracy of sad and angry faces than non-adopted children. Adopted children’s discrimination accuracy of scared and neutral faces was negatively associated with parent-reported behavioural problems, and discrimination accuracy of angry and scared faces was associated with parent- and teacher-reported emotional problems. Contrary to expectations, children who experienced more recorded pre-adoptive early adversity were more accurate in identifying negative emotions. Warm adoptive parenting was associated with fewer behavioural problems, and a lower tendency for children to incorrectly identify faces as angry. Study limitations and implications for intervention strategies to support adopted children’s emotion recognition and psychological adjustment are discussed.

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1165-1179 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Pietschnig ◽  
L. Schröder ◽  
I. Ratheiser ◽  
I. Kryspin-Exner ◽  
M. Pflüger ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackground:Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been detected in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Presently, we aim at assessing differences in emotion recognition performance in PD patient groups with and without mild forms of cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to healthy controls.Methods:Performance on a concise emotion recognition test battery (VERT-K) of three groups of 97 PD patients was compared with an age-equivalent sample of 168 healthy controls. Patients were categorized into groups according to two well-established classifications of MCI according to Petersen's (cognitively intact vs. amnestic MCI, aMCI, vs. non-amnestic MCI, non-aMCI) and Litvan's (cognitively intact vs. single-domain MCI, sMCI, vs. multi-domain MCI, mMCI) criteria. Patients and controls underwent individual assessments using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery examining attention, executive functioning, language, and memory (Neuropsychological Test Battery Vienna, NTBV), the Beck Depression Inventory, and a measure of premorbid IQ (WST).Results:Cognitively intact PD patients and patients with MCI in PD (PD-MCI) showed significantly worse emotion recognition performance when compared to healthy controls. Between-groups effect sizes were substantial, showing non-trivial effects in all comparisons (Cohen's ds from 0.31 to 1.22). Moreover, emotion recognition performance was higher in women, positively associated with premorbid IQ and negatively associated with age. Depressive symptoms were not related to FER.Conclusions:The present investigation yields further evidence for impaired FER in PD. Interestingly, our data suggest FER deficits even in cognitively intact PD patients indicating FER dysfunction prior to the development of overt cognitive dysfunction. Age showed a negative association whereas IQ showed a positive association with FER.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1719-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Nath ◽  
G. Russell ◽  
W. Kuyken ◽  
L. Psychogiou ◽  
T. Ford

BackgroundPaternal depressive symptoms are associated with children's emotional and behavioural problems, which may be mediated by negative parenting. But there is no research on the influence of paternal depressive symptoms on children's emotion regulation and limited literature investigating fathers’ parenting as a mediator in the pathway between paternal depressive symptoms and children's externalizing and internalizing problems. We aimed to investigate the mediating role of father–child conflict (at 3 years) in the association between postnatal paternal depressive symptoms (at 9 months) and children's emotional and behavioural problems (at 7 years) (aim 1). We also examined whether mediation pathways were more pronounced for boys or for girls (aim 2).MethodSecondary data analysis was conducted on the Millennium Cohort Study, when children were 9 months, 3 years and 7 years old (n = 3520). Main study variables were measured by self-report questionnaires. Fathers completed the Rutter Scale (depressive symptoms) and the Parent–Child Relationship Questionnaire (father–child conflict), while mothers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Social Behaviour Questionnaire (child emotional and behavioural problems, emotion regulation). We used structural equation modelling to estimate direct, indirect and total effects of paternal depressive symptoms on child outcomes, mediated by father–child conflict whilst adjusting for relevant covariates (maternal depressive symptoms, child temperament, marital conflict, and socio-economic factors such as poverty indicator and fathers’ education level). Multi-group and interaction analysis was then conducted to determine the differential effect by gender of the association between paternal depressive symptoms on child outcomes via father–child conflict.ResultsFather–child conflict mediated the association between paternal depressive symptoms and emotion regulation problems [standardized indirect effect (SIE) 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.03 to −0.01, p < 0.001; standardized total effect (STE) 95% CI −0.05 to −0.01, p < 0.05] (aim 1). Father–child conflict mediated a larger proportion of the effect in boys (SIE 95% CI −0.03 to −0.01, p < 0.001; STE 95% CI −0.05 to 0.00, p = 0.063) than it did in girls (SIE 95% CI −0.02 to −0.01, p < 0.001; STE 95% CI −0.04 to 0.01, p = 0.216) (aim 2).ConclusionsFather–child conflict may mediate the association between postnatal paternal depressive symptoms and children's emotion regulation problems. Paternal depressive symptoms and father–child conflict resolution may be potential targets in preventative interventions.


Author(s):  
Oliver Klott

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss Autogenic Training as an effective therapy for children with behavioural and emotional problems. The technique offers children in therapeutic communities strategies in dealing better with stress- and anxiety-related problems. The resulting increased body awareness and ability for self-reflection can also lead to a better engagement in other forms of therapy, decrease anxieties, reduce levels of frustration, increase self-esteem, decrease the fight/flight feeling and supports the work in therapeutic communities. Design/methodology/approach – International literature and the author's experience are reviewed to provide a better understanding of the technique and its potential in therapeutic communities. The paper explores creative ways of modifying the technique aiming to help children engage in the autogenic process. Findings – The paper concludes that Autogenic Training is an effective therapy and self-help technique for children with emotional and behavioural problems in therapeutic communities. Originality/value – Autogenic Training is well known in other European countries and often used as a first intervention in therapeutic settings for children and adults. There seems to be a clear lack of literature, papers and understanding of the technique in the UK. The paper addresses this deficit.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melina Grahlow ◽  
Claudia Rupp ◽  
Birgit Dernt

Facial emotion recognition is crucial for social interaction. However, in times of a global pandemic, where wearing a face mask covering mouth and nose is widely encouraged to prevent the spread of disease, successful emotion recognition may be challenging. In Study 1, we investigated whether emotion recognition, assessed by a validated emotion recognition task, is impaired for faces wearing a mask compared to uncovered faces, in a sample of 790 participants between 18 and 89 years. Additionally, perception of threat for faces with and without mask was assessed. We found impaired emotion recognition for faces wearing a mask compared to faces without mask, especially for those depicting anger, sadness and disgust. Further, we observed that perception of threat was altered for faces wearing a mask. In Study 2, we compared emotion recognition performance for faces with and without face mask to faces that are occluded by something other than a mask, i.e. a bubble as well as only showing the upper part of the faces. We found that, for most emotions and especially for disgust, there seems to be an effect that can be ascribed to the face mask specifically, both for emotion recognition performance and perception of threat. Methodological constraints as well as the importance of wearing a mask despite temporarily compromised social interaction are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazire Duran ◽  
ANTHONY P. ATKINSON

Certain facial features provide useful information for recognition of facial expressions. In two experiments, we investigated whether foveating informative features of briefly presented expressions improves recognition accuracy and whether these features are targeted reflexively when not foveated. Angry, fearful, surprised, and sad or disgusted expressions were presented briefly at locations which would ensure foveation of specific features. Foveating the mouth of fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions improved emotion recognition compared to foveating an eye or cheek or the central brow. Foveating the brow lead to equivocal results in anger recognition across the two experiments, which might be due to the different combination of emotions used. There was no consistent evidence suggesting that reflexive first saccades targeted emotion-relevant features; instead, they targeted the closest feature to initial fixation. In a third experiment, angry, fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions were presented for 5 seconds. Duration of task-related fixations in the eyes, brow, nose and mouth regions was modulated by the presented expression. Moreover, longer fixation at the mouth positively correlated with anger and disgust accuracy both when these expressions were freely viewed (Experiment 3) and when briefly presented at the mouth (Experiment 2). Finally, an overall preference to fixate the mouth across all expressions correlated positively with anger and disgust accuracy. These findings suggest that foveal processing of informative features is functional/contributory to emotion recognition, but they are not automatically sought out when not foveated, and that facial emotion recognition performance is related to idiosyncratic gaze behaviour.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0260814
Author(s):  
Nazire Duran ◽  
Anthony P. Atkinson

Certain facial features provide useful information for recognition of facial expressions. In two experiments, we investigated whether foveating informative features of briefly presented expressions improves recognition accuracy and whether these features are targeted reflexively when not foveated. Angry, fearful, surprised, and sad or disgusted expressions were presented briefly at locations which would ensure foveation of specific features. Foveating the mouth of fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions improved emotion recognition compared to foveating an eye or cheek or the central brow. Foveating the brow led to equivocal results in anger recognition across the two experiments, which might be due to the different combination of emotions used. There was no consistent evidence suggesting that reflexive first saccades targeted emotion-relevant features; instead, they targeted the closest feature to initial fixation. In a third experiment, angry, fearful, surprised and disgusted expressions were presented for 5 seconds. Duration of task-related fixations in the eyes, brow, nose and mouth regions was modulated by the presented expression. Moreover, longer fixation at the mouth positively correlated with anger and disgust accuracy both when these expressions were freely viewed (Experiment 2b) and when briefly presented at the mouth (Experiment 2a). Finally, an overall preference to fixate the mouth across all expressions correlated positively with anger and disgust accuracy. These findings suggest that foveal processing of informative features is functional/contributory to emotion recognition, but they are not automatically sought out when not foveated, and that facial emotion recognition performance is related to idiosyncratic gaze behaviour.


Author(s):  
Mahesh A. Tripathi ◽  
Godishala Sridevi

Children undergo a variety of interrelated changes in their adolescence and at times most children exhibits difficult behaviours. The problem becomes more severe in adopted children because such status of adoption affects various aspects of the developing personality. Feeling of rejection in early childhood generates a tendency of insecurity and fear in these children and to overcome from these beliefs they adopt aggressive behaviour. Psychotherapy with adolescents is different in a number of substantive ways from adults, because an adolescent is a person who is no longer a child but is not yet an adult. They are special population for whom psychotherapeutic intervention needs to be customized considering the emotional and behavioural exigencies. Identification and changing unhealthy thoughts and behaviours is the central idea of CBT and is becoming the treatment of choice for children and adolescents. The chapter deals with application of CBT in adolescent.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 1343-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice C. Schermerhorn

Severe early adversity, such as maltreatment and neglect, has been associated with alterations in children’s recognition of emotion. We sought to build on such findings by testing whether children’s exposure to interparental conflict, a much less severe form of adversity, is also associated with children’s emotion recognition. Further, we sought to examine the role of temperamental shyness in these associations. We presented 99 9- to 11-year-olds (56 males) with photographs of actors posing as a couple portraying interpersonal anger, happiness, and neutrality, and children classified the emotions in the photos. Children reported on interparental conflict, and their mothers reported on children’s shyness. Children’s perceptions of threat regarding interparental conflict interacted with trial type (angry, happy, neutral) to predict accuracy; greater threat perceptions predicted less accuracy for neutral expressions, a relatively ambiguous stimulus type. Additionally, shyness interacted with children’s threat perceptions. At low levels of shyness, low levels of threat perceptions predicted high accuracy, whereas high threat, high shyness, and their combination predicted poorer accuracy. Results suggest the significance of interparental conflict in altering children’s emotion recognition and of shyness in strengthening such adaptations. These findings suggest that even forms of adversity that are less severe than maltreatment and neglect have substantial implications for emotion processing, particularly for children with shy traits.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Carrà ◽  
Giulia Brambilla ◽  
Manuela Caslini ◽  
Francesca Parma ◽  
Alessandro Chinello ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesSince evidence on executive control among women with Anorexia or Bulimia Nervosa (AN/BN) are somehow inconclusive, we aimed to explore whether performance in set-shifting in AN/BN might be influenced by Facial Emotion Recognition (FER).MethodsWe randomly recruited women with a diagnosis of AN or BN, from an Eating Disorders Outpatient Clinic in Italy, as well as healthy controls (HCs). We evaluated with established tools: diagnosis (Eating Disorder Examination- EDE-17.0), executive control (Intra-Extra Dimensional Set Shift-IED) and FER (Ekman 60 Faces Test-EK-60F). Univariate distributions by diagnostic subgroups were assessed on sociodemographic and clinical variables, which were selected for subsequent multiple linear regression analyses.ResultsWomen with AN performed significantly worse than HCs on IED adjusted total errors. HCs scored significantly better than AN and BN on EK-60F fear subscale. Although IED set shifting was associated (p = 0.008) with AN, after controlling for age, EK-60F fear subscale, alexithymia and depression (i.e., clinically relevant covariates identified a priori from the literature, or associated with AN/BN at univariate level), this association could not be confirmed.ConclusionsImpaired executive control may not be a distinctive feature in women with AN, since several clinical characteristics, including fear recognition ability, are likely to have an important role. This has significant implications for relevant interventions in AN, which should aim at also improving socio-emotional processing.


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