Abstract
The perception and recognition of facial expressions are crucial for parenting. This study investigated whether and how maternal nurturing experience and trait anxiety influence the perception and recognition of infant and adult facial expressions. This was assessed by comparing the performance of primiparous mothers (n = 25) and non-mothers (n = 28) on an emotional face perception task. Trait anxiety was measured using the Japanese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). We found that mothers had higher recognition accuracy for facial expressions, but only of adults, not infants. Moreover, as trait anxiety increased, so did mothers’ sensitivity in perceiving facial expressions of both infants and adults. These findings suggest that maternal nurturing experience does enhance the recognition of adult emotional expressions, and an optimal level of maternal trait anxiety may enhance mothers’ sensitivity toward infants’ and adults’ emotional signals.
Highlights
Maternal sensitivity, defined as being attuned to an infant’s physical and mental needs, is essential for positive parenting
We performed a hierarchical multiple regression analysis to investigate the effect of trait anxiety and nurturing experience on sensitivity to emotional facial expression
The present study investigated whether nurturing experience affects perceptual sensitivity to and recognition accuracy of facial expressions, as well as individual differences with respect to the effect of trait anxiety on perceptual sensitivity
Summary
Maternal sensitivity, defined as being attuned to an infant’s physical and mental needs, is essential for positive parenting. It provides a platform to develop an effective attachment relationship to support infants’ physiological, cognitive, and social-emotional development [1,2,3]. It is crucial for mothers to effectively perceive, recognize, and respond to their infants’ cues to enhance maternal sensitivity [4]. Facial emotional expressions are especially important for parenting. Infants have the ability to discriminate between and display facial expressions [7]. From the age of six months, infants can convey their physiological and emotional states using the six fundamental emotional facial expressions (i.e., happiness, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and fear) [8,9].
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