Associations of child emotion recognition with interparental conflict and shy child temperament traits

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 1343-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice C. Schermerhorn
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Interparental Conflict ◽  
Severe Form ◽  
Early Adversity ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
Children's Emotion ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Children’S Exposure ◽  
High Threat

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.

scholarly journals The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia E. Michalek ◽  
Matteo Lisi ◽  
Deema Awad ◽  
Kristin Hadfield ◽  
Isabelle Mareschal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Reading Intervention ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Early Adversity ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Affective Development ◽  
Syrian Refugee

Early adversity and trauma can have profound effects on children’s affective development and mental health outcomes. Interventions that improve mental health and socioemotional development are essential to mitigate these effects. We conducted a pilot study examining whether a reading-based program (We Love Reading) improves emotion recognition and mental health through socialization in Syrian refugee (n = 49) and Jordanian non-refugee children (n = 45) aged 7–12 years old (M = 8.9, 57% girls) living in Jordan. To measure emotion recognition, children classified the expression in faces morphed between two emotions (happy–sad and fear–anger), while mental health was assessed using survey measures of optimism, depression, anxiety, distress, and insecurity. Prior to the intervention, both groups of children were significantly biased to interpret ambiguous facial expressions as sad, while there was no clear bias on the fear–anger spectrum. Following the intervention, we found changes in Syrian refugee children’s bias in emotion recognition away from sad facial expressions, although this returned to pre-intervention levels 2 months after the end of the program. This shift in the bias away from sad facial expressions was not associated with changes in self-reported mental health symptoms. These results suggest a potential positive role of the reading intervention on affective development, but further research is required to determine the longer-term impacts of the program.

scholarly journals Facial emotion recognition in adopted children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Paine ◽  
Stephanie H. M. van Goozen ◽  
Daniel T. Burley ◽  
Rebecca Anthony ◽  
Katherine H. Shelton
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Behavioural Problems ◽  
Early Adversity ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Emotional And Behavioural Problems ◽  
Discrimination Accuracy ◽  
Children's Emotion ◽  
The Uk

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.

Social Motives Predict Loneliness During a Developmental Transition

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 145-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Nikitin ◽  
Alexandra M. Freund
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Avoidance ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Social Motives ◽  
Developmental Transitions ◽  
Avoidance Motivation ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Low Levels

Abstract. Establishing new social relationships is important for mastering developmental transitions in young adulthood. In a 2-year longitudinal study with four measurement occasions (T1: n = 245, T2: n = 96, T3: n = 103, T4: n = 85), we investigated the role of social motives in college students’ mastery of the transition of moving out of the parental home, using loneliness as an indicator of poor adjustment to the transition. Students with strong social approach motivation reported stable and low levels of loneliness. In contrast, students with strong social avoidance motivation reported high levels of loneliness. However, this effect dissipated relatively quickly as most of the young adults adapted to the transition over a period of several weeks. The present study also provides evidence for an interaction between social approach and social avoidance motives: Social approach motives buffered the negative effect on social well-being of social avoidance motives. These results illustrate the importance of social approach and social avoidance motives and their interplay during developmental transitions.

Social and Temporal Comparisons as Moderators of Psychological Resources Associations With Wellbeing

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasida Ben-Zur
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Subjective Wellbeing ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Psychological Resources ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Age Range ◽  
General Wellbeing

Abstract. The current study investigated the associations of psychological resources, social comparisons, and temporal comparisons with general wellbeing. The sample included 142 community participants (47.9% men; age range 23–83 years), who compared themselves with others, and with their younger selves, on eight dimensions (e.g., physical health, resilience). They also completed questionnaires assessing psychological resources of mastery and self-esteem, and three components of subjective wellbeing: life satisfaction and negative and positive affect. The main results showed that high levels of psychological resources contributed to wellbeing, with self-enhancing social and temporal comparisons moderating the effects of resources on certain wellbeing components. Specifically, under low levels of mastery or self-esteem self-enhancing social or temporal comparisons were related to either higher life satisfaction or positive affect. The results highlight the role of resources and comparisons in promoting people’s wellbeing, and suggest that self-enhancing comparisons function as cognitive coping mechanisms when psychological resources are low.

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