Use of a facial morph task to assess emotion recognition in children with symptoms of psychopathology
Date
2012
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The goal of the current study was to examine relations among children’s symptoms of psychopathology and their ability to identify facial expressions of emotion. Participants were 184 fourth- and fifth-grade children. Participants watched 16 videos in which neutral facial expressions morphed to display one of four target emotions (angry, fearful, happy, or sad) and stopped the video when they believed that they could identify the facial expression. Teachers completed questionnaires assessing children’s symptoms of psychopathology (aggressive, anxious, attention problems, depressive, hyperactive). For internalizing symptoms, anxious symptoms were associated with faster identification of angry and sad expressions, whereas depressive symptoms were related to slower identification of angry and sad expressions. For externalizing symptoms, inattentive symptoms were associated with fewer correctly identified angry expressions, and aggressive symptoms were related to fewer correctly identified fearful expressions. Results are discussed in terms of emotion processing patterns.