Children with Behavioural Problems Misinterpret the Emotions and Intentions of Others

Amy E Wells,Daniel P Ash,Laura M Hunnikin,Stephanie H M Van Goozen

doi:10.1007/s10802-019-00594-7

Abstract

Research indicates that the misinterpretation of other’s emotions or intentions may lead to antisocial behaviour. This study investigated emotion and intention recognition in children with behavioural problems and examined their relationship and relations with behaviour problem severity. Participants were 7–11 year old children with behavioural problems (n = 93, mean age: 8.78, 82.8% male) who were taking part in an early intervention program and typically developing controls (n = 44, mean age: 9.82, 79.5% male). Participants completed emotion recognition and Theory of Mind tasks. Teachers and parents rated children’s emotional and behavioural problems. Children with behavioural problems showed impaired emotion and intention recognition. Emotion recognition and intention recognition were positively related and inversely associated with behavioural problem severity and, independently of one another, predicted behavioural problems. This study is the first to show that children with behavioural problems are impaired in identifying others’ emotions as well as intentions. These social cognitive processes were found to be related and inversely associated with severity of behavioural problems. This has important implications for intervention and prevention programmes for children with behavioural difficulties.

Highlights

Research indicates that the misinterpretation of other’s emotions or intentions may lead to antisocial behaviour
Behavioural problems in childhood are associated with subsequent Antisocial behaviour (ASB) during adulthood (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health 2009) and a diagnosis of conduct disorder (CD) in childhood is a criterion for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in adulthood (Rhee and Waldman 2002)
The specific impairment in intentionality displayed by the behavioural problems group (BP) group in the current study provides support for Mohammadzadeh et al.’s (2016) suggestion and is line with research that has found associations between impaired Theory of Mind (ToM) and hostile attribution biases (HAB; Choe et al 2013)

Summary

Introduction

Research indicates that the misinterpretation of other’s emotions or intentions may lead to antisocial behaviour. This study investigated emotion and intention recognition in children with behavioural problems and examined their relationship and relations with behaviour problem severity. Children with behavioural problems showed impaired emotion and intention recognition. This study is the first to show that children with behavioural problems are impaired in identifying others’ emotions as well as intentions. These social cognitive processes were found to be related and inversely associated with severity of behavioural problems. This has important implications for intervention and prevention programmes for children with behavioural difficulties. Structural imaging work has shown individuals with CD have amygdala abnormalities (Fairchild et al 2011) and individuals with amygdala damage are impaired in recognising fear (Adolphs et al 2005)

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Discussion

Conclusion