Facial Emotion Recognition in Adolescence: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Abstract Background: The recognition of emotions in faces refers to the ability to identify, discriminate and analyze emotional states through facial expressions, which is of paramount importance for social interaction, as it allows evaluating and modulating knowledge, attitudes and values. The scientific literature shows that this ability appears primarily in babies and improves throughout the life cycle, however, there is still need for a clearer understanding of its development during adolescence. Objective: Investigate adolescent development in recognizing basic emotions through facial expressions. Methods: This article used the systematic review of scientific literature as a research method, related to development of the ability to recognize basic emotions in the face in adolescence. Results: The analysis of twelve selected articles revealed that: (1) there is an improvement in this ability during adolescence, but in a heterogeneous way in relation to basic emotions; (2) happiness is the emotion most easily identified by adolescents, whereas fear has less identification accuracy at this stage; (3) there is a female advantage, but there was no agreement on the influence of pubertal state. However, there was a notable variation in the sample and methods used in the experiments, which may explain the heterogeneity of the results. Conclusions: This review highlights the need for further exploration and the proposition of new studies and theoretical models to advance understanding in this area. Keywords: Recognition of emotions in faces; Development; Adolescence; Universal emotions; Facial perception; Systematic review.