Abstract
Research shows that adolescents with mental illnesses have a bias for processing negative facial emotions, and this may play a role in impaired social functioning that often co-exists with a mental health diagnosis. This study examined associations between psychological and somatic problems and facial emotion recognition in early adolescence; as any processing biases in this age-group may be an early indicator of later mental illnesses. A community sample of 40 12-year-olds self-rated their symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization via two mental health screeners. They also completed a computerized emotion recognition task in which they identified photographs of 40 faces showing expressions of anger, fear, sadness, happiness, or neutral expression. Results showed that increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization were significantly associated with fewer correct responses to angry expressions. These symptoms were also associated with faster and more accurate recognition of fearful expressions. However, there was no association between mental health and recognition of sad affect. Finally, increased psychological and/or somatic symptomology was also associated with better identification of neutral expressions. In conclusion, youth with increased psychological and/or somatic problems exhibited a processing bias for negative anger and fear expressions, but not sadness. They showed better processing of neutral faces than youth with fewer psychological and/or somatic problems. Findings are discussed in relation to indicators of mental illnesses in early adolescence and the potential underpinning neural mechanisms associated with mental health and emotional facial recognition.
Highlights
Face perception is of critical importance in social interactions
K10 showed level psychological distress wasSimilar low, for a mental disorder were found with scale: 10% ≥
Our findings indicate that young people with levels of psychological distress (K10), psychological and/or somatic symptoms or depression caseness higher levels of psychological distress (K10), psychological and/or somatic symptoms or depression (SPHERE-12) exhibited a processing bias for negative facial affect
Summary
In addition to providing information regarding age, gender, race, and identity, facial expressions provide important cues about thoughts and emotions [1]. Correct processing and interpretation of emotions conveyed by facial expressions is crucial as it ensures successful interpersonal communication. Decades of facial recognition research has shown that discriminating facial expressions is an innate ability evident in infancy [2], and it is refined across childhood [3,4] and adolescence [1]. There are six universal facial expressions which correspond to key individual emotions: happy, sad, anxious, disgust, fear, and surprise [5]. Specific to the purpose of the current paper, research demonstrates that anomalies in facial recognition ability are evident in individuals with mental health problems [6]
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