Children's Emotional Expressions Research Articles

Parent Emotion Socialization in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-Occurring Anxiety.

Although parents' socialization of children's emotional experiences and expression has been widely studied in typically developing (TD) populations, these processes have been largely unexplored in families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study examined parent emotion socialization in a well-characterized sample of verbally fluent children with ASD and comorbid anxiety disorders. Participants included 64 children, aged 8-15years, who had ASD and co-occurring anxiety and 24 matched TD children without psychiatric disorders. Parents completed ratings of their responses to their children's emotional experiences using the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES), and both parents and children completed ratings of child anxiety using the Multidimensional Anxiety Rating Scale (MASC). Parents of children with ASD and anxiety did not differ from parents of TD children without psychiatric disorders in their endorsement of different emotion socialization practices. However, among children with ASD and anxiety, greater anxiety was associated with more emotion-focused responses from parents, and for children with less ASD symptom severity, lower levels of anxiety were associated with more punitive responses from parents. Results suggest that certain types of more directive emotion socialization approaches may be associated with lower anxiety in children with ASD, whereas emotion socialization approaches focused on altering the child's emotional experiences may be associated with greater anxiety in this population. While it is likely that parent emotion socialization practices impact children's emotional experiences of anxiety, it is also likely that children with distinct profiles of anxiety and ASD symptomology elicit specific styles of emotion socialization from parents.

Co-reminiscing with a caregiver about a devastating tornado: Association with adolescent anxiety symptoms.

This study explores the association between caregivers' style of co-reminiscing with their adolescents about an EF4 tornado and youth anxiety symptoms several years following the disaster. Caregiver reward of their children's emotional expression, defined as attending to and validating emotionally salient content, is generally associated with adaptive youth psychosocial outcomes. However, caregiver reward of youth recollections that are centered around the youth's negative emotional expression could be an indicator that both caregivers and adolescents are engaged in co-rumination regarding negative emotional experiences. This process may contribute to relatively higher levels of anxiety over time. Adolescents (N = 169) drawn from an ongoing study for aggressive youth (ages 12 to 17; 82% African American) provided individual recollections about their experiences during a devastating tornado 4 to 5 years following the disaster. Caregivers and youth then co-reminisced about their tornado-related experiences. Individual youth recollections were coded for negative personal impact and use of negative emotion words; caregiver-adolescent conversations were coded for caregiver reward of negative emotional expression. Youth who noted more negative personal impacts and used more negative emotion words were higher in parent-rated youth anxiety, and these associations were moderated by caregiver reward of negative emotional expression. The associations between youth recollection qualities and anxiety emerged only when caregivers exhibited high levels of reward of negative emotional expression. These patterns were generally stronger for girls compared to boys. Findings suggest that excessively discussing and rehashing negative experiences, especially several years after the disaster, may be a risk factor for anxiety among disaster-exposed adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A naturalistic study of parental emotion socialization: Unique contributions of fathers.

The socialization of emotion in preschool-aged children is an important developmental task, which is associated with a number of socioemotional outcomes. This study examined the contribution of both fathers' and mothers' emotion coaching to their 3- to 4-year-old children's emotion socialization. Two time points of data were collected for 69 families. We employed a time sampling observational method to capture the emotion socialization process in the naturalistic home environment. Fathers' and mothers' emotion coaching and expression, as well as children's emotion expression, were assessed at home using an audio recording device. Children's emotion expressions were also captured during an emotion eliciting task in a lab setting 1 year later. Regression analyses revealed that children of more positively expressive fathers also showed more positive emotion expression concurrently. Paternal emotion coaching, but not maternal emotion coaching, was predictive of children's increased positive expression in the lab 1 year later. This study provides evidence for unique contributions of fathers, above and beyond mothers, to the emotion socialization outcomes of their children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Development of a Real-Time Emotion Recognition System Using Facial Expressions and EEG based on machine learning and deep neural network methods

Abstract Real-time emotion recognition has been an active field of research over the past several decades. This work aims to classify physically disabled people (deaf, dumb, and bedridden) and Autism children's emotional expressions based on facial landmarks and electroencephalograph (EEG) signals using a convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) classifiers by developing an algorithm for real-time emotion recognition using virtual markers through an optical flow algorithm that works effectively in uneven lightning and subject head rotation (up to 25°), different backgrounds, and various skin tones. Six facial emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise) are collected using ten virtual markers. Fifty-five undergraduate students (35 male and 25 female) with a mean age of 22.9 years voluntarily participated in the experiment for facial emotion recognition. Nineteen undergraduate students volunteered to collect EEG signals. Initially, Haar-like features are used for facial and eye detection. Later, virtual markers are placed on defined locations on the subject's face based on a facial action coding system using the mathematical model approach, and the markers are tracked using the Lucas-Kande optical flow algorithm. The distance between the center of the subject's face and each marker position is used as a feature for facial expression classification. This distance feature is statistically validated using a one-way analysis of variance with a significance level of p

Time-resolved discrimination of audiovisual expressions of emotion in children with and without autism

Time-resolved discrimination of audiovisual expressions of emotion in children with and without autism

The Differential Contribution of the Components of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Emotion Development for Treatment of Preschool Depression

An adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) with a novel Emotion Development (ED) module has shown efficacy for the treatment of early childhood depression. Children who received PCIT-ED also showed healthy alterations in neural response to reward. We investigated whether the novel ED module made a unique contribution to the treatment of depression and neural response to reward, and whether child-directed intervention (CDI) and parent-directed intervention (PDI) modules (standard elements of PCIT) were also effective. Dyads who participated in a randomized controlled trial of PCIT that compared the active PCIT-ED to a wait list (WL) condition were assessed at the completion of each module of PCIT-ED (CDI, PDI, ED) or WL time equivalent for child depression and other symptoms, parenting styles, stress, and depression. Event-related potentials during a reward task were obtained at the end of standard PCIT and after the novel ED module. Study findings showed that the ED module as well as some elements of standard PCIT were effective in reducing child depression and other forms of psychopathology. Changes in the child's neural response to reward and parental response to child emotional expression were specific to the ED module. Study findings suggest that the novel ED module has added efficacy for the treatment of early childhood depression, as well as unique efficacy in changing neural responses to reward and parenting response to child emotional expression. These findings can inform clinical uses of this treatment in a modular fashion. Future studies are needed that control for session number and order of PCIT-ED modules. A Randomized Controlled Trial of PCIT-ED for Preschool Depression; https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT02076425.

Pengaruh Metode Bernyanyi Terhadap Ekspresi Emosi Anak di Taman Kanak-Kanak Jabal Rahmah Padang

Metode yang dapat mengembangkan ekspresi emosi anak adalah dengan menggunakan metode bernyanyi, berdasarkan latar belakang masalah yang peneliti temukan, penelitian ini ingin mengetahui sejauh mana pengaruh metode bernyanyi terhadap ekspresi emosi anak. Pendekatan penelitian menggunakan quasy eksperiment dengan subjeknya yaitu kelompok B1terdiri dari 10 anak dimana 6 anak laki-laki dan 4 perempuan, dan kelompok B2 terdiri dari10 anak dimana 7 anak laki-laki dan 3 perempuan.Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan yaitu tes perbuatan, dengan alat pengumpulan data menggunakan lembaran pernyataan, berikutnya dikelola menggunakan uji perbedaan (t-test) data. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan kelas ekspreimen dengan metode bernyanyi mendapatkan nilai rata-rata lebih tinggi 88,75 dibandingkan dengan yang berada di kelas kontrol 78,12 menggunakan metode bermain peran. Terlihat thitung > ttabel yaitu 2,41590 > 2.10092. Dapat ditarik kesimpulan bahwa metode bernyanyi mempengaruhi ekspresi emosi anak di Taman Kanak-Kanak Jabal Rahmah Padang tahun ajaran 2018/2019

Prediction of Children's Early Academic Adjustment from Their Temperament: The Moderating Role of Peer Temperament.

The goal of the study was to examine whether target children's temperamental negative emotional expressivity (NEE) and effortful control in the fall of kindergarten predicted academic adjustment in the spring and whether a classmate's NEE and effortful control moderated these relations. Target children's NEE and effortful control were measured in the fall via multiple methods, academic adjustment was measured via reading and math standardized tests in the spring, and observations of engagement in the classroom were conducted throughout the year. In the fall, teachers nominated a peer with whom each target child spent the most time and rated that peer's temperament. Target children with high effortful control had high reading and math achievement (ps = .04 and < .001, respectively), and children with low NEE increased in engagement during the year (p < .001). Peers' temperament did not have a direct relation to target children's academic adjustment. Peers' negative emotion, however, moderated the relation between target children's effortful control, as well as NEE, and changes in engagement (ps = .03 and .05, respectively). Further, peers' effortful control moderated the relations between target children's NEE and reading and changes in engagement (ps = .02 and .04, respectively). In each case, target children's temperament predicted the outcome in expected directions more strongly when peers had low NEE or high effortful control. Results are discussed in terms of how children's temperamental qualities relate to academic adjustment, and how the relation between NEE and changes in engagement, in particular, depends on peers' temperament.

The Role of Children's Neurophysiological Functioning in the Links Between Emotion-Parenting Behaviors and Child Anxiety Symptoms: A Biological Sensitivity to Context Framework.

A plethora of data supports links between parenting behaviors and child anxiety, but few studies have examined factors that can contribute to variability in these relations. Adopting a biological sensitivity to context framework, this study explored the role of children's physiological stress reactivity in the links between emotion-parenting and child anxiety symptoms in a group of Chinese families. Sixty-one parent-child dyads (child Mage = 8.21years, SD=1.40, range=6-12years) participated in an acute stress protocol, from which children's physiological (cortisol and respiratory sinus arrhythmia) responses to a social speech task were recorded. Participants then completed questionnaires assessing parents' emotion-parenting behaviors and children's anxiety symptoms. Results showed that the relation between supportive emotion-parenting and child anxiety was stronger in the context of greater child RSA suppression to acute stress, such that children higher in RSA suppression exhibited lower anxiety symptoms when supportive emotion-parenting was higher than when it was lower. Thus, these findings supported the biological sensitivity to context model. No significant moderation effect was detected for cortisol reactivity or recovery. Instead, exploratory mediation analyses showed that supportive emotion-parenting was negatively related to child anxiety via greater cortisol recovery. There was also a significant indirect path where unsupportive emotion-parenting was related to blunted cortisol recovery, which in turn was associated with higher child anxiety. The results highlight the importance of coaching parents to respond in supportive ways to children's emotional expressions, particularly in the context of greater child reactivity, to help buffer against childhood anxiety symptoms.

Pet Ownership and Children's Emotional Expression: Propensity Score-Matched Analysis of Longitudinal Data from Japan.

With many children and young adolescents reporting strong emotional bonds with their pets, the impact of pet ownership on child/adolescent health—especially on their emotional development—has garnered increasing scientific interest. We examined the association between pet ownership in toddlerhood (age 3.5 years) and poor emotional expression in later childhood (age 5.5 years) using propensity score matching within a longitudinal cohort dataset from Japan (n = 31,453). A propensity score for pet ownership was calculated by logistic models based on a comprehensive list of each child’s observed characteristics, including sex, household income, parental education, mother’s employment status, residential environment, number of siblings, and living arrangement. Log-binomial regression analyses using matched samples revealed that children who owned pets during the toddler years were 6% less likely to have a poor emotional expression in later childhood (prevalence ratio = 0.94, 95% confidence interval = 0.90–0.99) compared to those without pets. This suggests that owning pets may provide children with opportunities to control their emotions, and lead to a lower prevalence of poor emotional expression. Pet ownership in toddlerhood may contribute to the development of expression.

Maternal Self-Construal, Maternal Socialization of Emotions and Child Emotion Regulation in a Sample of Romanian Mother-Toddler Dyads

Over the recent years, there is growing recognition of the social and cultural regulatory processes that act upon individual emotions. The adult-to-child social regulation of emotion is even more relevant, given the development of child self-regulatory abilities during early years. Although it is acknowledged that parental regulatory attempts to their children’s emotional expressions are influenced by cultural models, relatively little is known about the specific relationship between parental cultural models and socialization practices that foster emotion self-regulation, particularly in the case of toddlers. Therefore, in the present study, our first aim was to examine, in a Romanian sample of mother-toddler dyads, the relationships between maternal cultural model of self and maternal regulatory attempts targeting toddlers’ emotions during a delay of gratification task, while controlling for maternal perceptions of child individual characteristics, namely temperament. The second aim was to analyze, within the delay of gratification task, the relations between maternal regulatory attempts, child regulatory strategies and child affect expression, as the outcome of emotion regulation. Results showed that mothers scored higher for Independence as compared to Interdependence dimensions of self-construal. Also, the multidimensional analysis of self-construal revealed that Autonomy/Assertiveness scores were significantly higher than Relational Interdependent scores. Moreover, different dimensions of Independence predicted different maternal regulatory strategies employed during the delay of gratification task. This pattern of results suggests that maternal representations of an independent self, evidenced in our sample, are reflected in regulatory practices, aimed to develop primary control in the toddler. Moreover, our data revealed several significant associations between maternal regulatory strategies and child regulatory strategies expressed during the delay of gratification task. Finally, we demonstrated that child self-regulation mediated the relation between maternal regulatory attempts and child expression of affect during this task.

Mothers' depressive symptoms and responses to preschoolers' emotions: moderated by child expression

This study examined a model of children's emotion expression as a moderator of the links between mothers' depressive symptoms and their responses to children's negative emotions. Participants were 127 mother-preschooler dyads. Children's emotion expressions were assessed both by maternal report and through observational tasks when children were three. Mothers were assessed for their depressive symptoms when children were three, and their responses to their children's negative emotions, when children were four. Results revealed that when children's reported submissive emotion expression was low, maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower maternal support; whereas, when children's reported submissive emotion was high, maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher support. Moreover, when children's observed disharmonious emotion expression was low, maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower maternal magnifying responses. This study enhances our understanding of the interaction between maternal depressive symptoms and child emotional characteristics in contributing to maternal emotion socialization practices.

Identification of facial expressions of emotion by 4-year-old children from different linguistic environments

The current study investigated the identification of facial expressions of emotion, a socio-emotional task that has not previously been examined in children from different linguistic environments. Eighty-four 4-year-olds growing up in one of three linguistic environments (monolingual, dominant bilingual, balanced bilingual) performed a task where they identified facial expressions (happiness, anger, sadness, fear). Accuracy was analysed with a mixed-design analysis of variance using group (monolinguals, dominant bilinguals and balanced bilinguals) and emotion (happy, angry, sad and scared) as between- and within-group variables, respectively. Our results showed a main effect of emotion, but there was no main effect of group. This suggests that 4-year-olds’ linguistic environment does not affect performance on an identification of facial expressions task. This study was the first to investigate the identification of facial expressions of emotion in children coming from different linguistic environments. As the socio-emotional development of bilinguals is not yet well understood, especially regarding the visual perception of emotions, this study is amongst the first to contribute to this area of research. Our results are therefore of significance as a building block for additional studies that should explore the visual perception of emotions in other types of tasks and populations.

Childhood Affective Indicators of Risk for Adulthood Psychopathology: The New York High-Risk Project Findings.

There are relatively few investigations of the emotion expressivity of children at risk for the later development of schizophrenia and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Using data from the New York High-Risk Project, we compared children’s emotional expressivity during a semi-structured videotaped interview. Data were coded for 173 child subjects: 61 with schizophrenic parents (HRSz); 54 with affectively ill parents (HRAff); and 58 with psychiatrically “normal” parents (NC). A child’s affective responses were rated for the presence of discrete positive, negative, or neutral emotions by coders naive to group membership. Responses were also rated for anxiety, flat affect, inappropriate affect, and emotional withdrawal/disengagement. Compared with the two other two groups, HRSz children displayed significantly more negative affect in response to questions regarding their most negative experiences and, when questioned about their self-concept, they displayed significantly less positive affect. Both HRSz and HRAff children showed more inappropriate affect than NC children. Significantly more HRSz children were rated as demonstrating a lack of emotional engagement. Children making inappropriate displays of positive affect while discussing a negative topic were most likely to manifest a psychiatric disorder as an adult. These findings suggest that inappropriate affect may be a nonspecific indicator of risk for psychopathology. Emotional withdrawal in childhood may be a potential indicator of risk for schizophrenia.

Measuring child and adolescent emotional lability: How do questionnaire-based ratings relate to experienced and observed emotion in everyday life and experimental settings?

Emotional lability (EL) is an important trans-diagnostic concept that is associated with significant functional impairment in childhood and adolescence. EL is typically measured with questionnaires, although little is known about the ecological validity of these ratings. In this paper, we undertook 2 studies addressing this issue by examining the relationship between rating-based measures of EL and directly measured emotional expressions and experiences. Furthermore, the associations between directly measured emotional expressions and experiences and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology were also examined, given the clear association of EL with ADHD in former research. In Study 1, we examined the relationship between parental report of children's EL and ADHD, and children's emotional expressions in an experimental context (N=67). In Study2, we examined the relationship between parental ratings and real-time measures of emotional experiences in daily life in adolescents (N=65). EL ratings were associated with different elements of real-time emotional experiences and expressions. Elements of emotional expressions but not emotional experiences were also associated with ADHD symptom reports. These studies provide evidence for the ecological validity of EL ratings. Furthermore, they add evidence for the associations between EL and ADHD.

Understanding Emotion Socialization Through Naturalistic Observations of Parent–Child Interactions

ObjectiveTo describe children's emotion expressions, parent behavioral responses to their negative emotions, and children's subsequent emotional reactions.BackgroundPast research typically has used questionnaires and structured laboratory studies to understand these constructs. The present study, by contrast, was designed to investigate how these behaviors unfold during families' everyday lives.MethodThirty‐one families were recorded going about their daily lives as part of a larger study of the everyday lives of families; footage of a parent and target child (8–12 years of age) together on screen was divided into 30‐second clips (N = 15,071). Children's expressions of positive and negative emotion were identified, and parent emotion coaching responses (those theorized to encourage emotion expression) and emotion dismissing responses (behaviors postulated to discourage emotion expression) to children's negative affective displays were coded.ResultsMultilevel modeling results indicated that children were more likely to react with negative emotion following parents' critical statements and negative commands. However, parent ignoring increased the likelihood of positive or neutral emotional reactions.ConclusionAlthough sometimes classified as a dismissing response, parent ignoring may facilitate opportunities to practice emotion regulation.ImplicationsThese naturalistic observations can help to inform parent training programs about differential responses to children's expressions of negative affect.

Longitudinal Relations between Behavioral Inhibition and Social Information Processing: Moderating Role of Maternal Supportive Reactions to Children's Emotions.

Utilizing multiple measures of interpretive biases, the current study examined the roles of toddlers' behavioral inhibition (BI) and maternal supportive reactions to children's negative emotions in relation to children's interpretive biases across middle to late childhood. Toddlers' BI was measured during several laboratory tasks (n = 248) at 2 and 3 years of age. Mothers reported on their reactions to children's negative emotional expressions when children were 7 years old (n = 203), and children's interpretations of social cues were assessed at 7 and 10 years of age (ns = 179 and 161, respectively). Toddlers with high levels of BI expressed less positivity towards social engagement with unfamiliar peers during discussion of ambiguous social situations. Further, children with high BI were less likely to attribute the cause of negative social situations to external factors, particularly when mothers were less accepting of children's negative emotional displays. Findings are discussed in terms of cognition related to the interpretation of ambiguous and threat-related social situations among temperamentally at-risk children.

Bidirectional associations between emotions and school adjustment.

We examined the relations of children's (N = 301) observed expression of negative and positive emotion in classes or nonclassroom school contexts (i.e., lunch and recess) to school adjustment from kindergarten to first grade. Naturalistic observations of children's emotional expressivity were collected, as were teachers' reports of children's school engagement and relationship quality with teachers and peers. In longitudinal panel models, greater teacher-student conflict and lower student engagement in kindergarten predicted greater negative expressivity in both school contexts. School engagement and peer acceptance in kindergarten positively predicted first grade positive emotion in the classroom. Suggestive of possible bidirectional relations, there was also small unique prediction (near significant) from negative expressivity at lunch and recess to higher teacher-student conflict, from negative expressivity in the classroom to low peer acceptance, and from positive expressivity in the classroom to higher peer acceptance. The pattern of findings suggests that the quality of experience at school uniquely predicts children's emotional expressivity at school more consistently than vice versa-a finding that highlights the important role of school context in young children's emotionality at school.

Moderating Effects of Negative Emotionality on the Association Between Maternal Attitude Toward Children's Emotional Expression and Empathy Based on the Differential Susceptibility Model

Moderating Effects of Negative Emotionality on the Association Between Maternal Attitude Toward Children's Emotional Expression and Empathy Based on the Differential Susceptibility Model

Relación entre atención compartida madre-hijo, sensibilidad materna y expresión emocional gestual infantil

Shared attention refers to episodes through which a child and his or her caretaker are intentionally focused on some object or activity while engaging in physical and emotional exchange. This study describes shared attention bearing in mind levels of commitment and emotional tone, and it analyzes associated relationships with maternal sensitivity and the intensity of emotional expression in one-year-old children. The sample includes 12 mother-child dyads with the following inclusion criteria: only children, of ages between 12 and 14 months, living with both parents and attending a nursery. The instruments used were the Shared Attention Assessment, the Children's Emotional Expressions Assessment, and the Adult Sensitivity Scale (ASS). Results show episodes of shared attention between mother-child dyads at one year of age. A significant relationship between shared attention, levels of commitment, and maternal sensitivity was also found.