Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:20:04.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emotion recognition in preschool children: Associations with maternal depression and early parenting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2014

Autumn Kujawa ,
Lea Dougherty ,
C. Emily Durbin ,
Rebecca Laptook ,
Dana Torpey  and
Daniel N. Klein
Autumn Kujawa*
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University
Lea Dougherty
Affiliation:
University of Maryland–College Park
C. Emily Durbin
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Rebecca Laptook
Affiliation:
Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School
Dana Torpey
Affiliation:
VA San Diego Healthcare System
Daniel N. Klein
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Autumn Kujawa, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Emotion knowledge in childhood has been shown to predict social functioning and psychological well-being, but relatively little is known about parental factors that influence its development in early childhood. There is some evidence that both parenting behavior and maternal depression are associated with emotion recognition, but previous research has only examined these factors independently. The current study assessed auditory and visual emotion recognition ability among a large sample of preschool children to examine typical emotion recognition skills in children of this age, as well as the independent and interactive effects of maternal and paternal depression and negative parenting (i.e., hostility and intrusiveness). Results indicated that children were most accurate at identifying happy emotional expressions. The lowest accuracy was observed for neutral expressions. A significant interaction was found between maternal depression and negative parenting behavior: children with a maternal history of depression were particularly sensitive to the negative effects of maladaptive parenting behavior on emotion recognition ability. No significant effects were found for paternal depression. These results highlight the importance of examining the effects of multiple interacting factors on children's emotional development and provide suggestions for identifying children for targeted preventive interventions.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 159 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Manual for ASEBA preschool forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.Google Scholar
Ale, C. M., Chorney, D. B., Brice, C. S., & Morris, T. L. (2010). Facial affect recognition and social anxiety in preschool children. Early Child Development and Care, 180, 1349–1359. doi:10.1080/03004430903059318CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreasen, N. C., Endicott, J., Spitzer, R. L., & Winokur, G. (1977). The family history method using diagnostic criteria: Reliability and validity. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 1229–1235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bennett, D. S., Bendersky, M., & Lewis, M. (2005). Antecedents of emotion knowledge: Predictors of individual differences in young children. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 375–396. doi:10.1080/02699930441000201CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowers, D., Blonder, L. X., & Heilman, K. M. (1991). The Florida Affect Battery. Unpublished manuscript, University of Florida, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory.Google Scholar
Broeren, S., Muris, P., Bouwmeester, S., Field, A. P., & Voerman, J. S. (2011). Processing biases for emotional faces in 4- to 12-year-old non-clinical children: An exploratory study of developmental patterns and relationships with social anxiety and behavioral inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 2, 454–474. doi:10.5127/jep.016611CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camras, L. A., Ribordy, S., Hill, J., Martino, S., Sachs, V., Spaccarelli, S., et al. (1990). Maternal facial behavior and the recognition and production of emotional expression by maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Developmental Psychology, 26, 304–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caron, R. F., Caron, A. J., & Myers, R. S. (1982). Abstraction of invariant face expressions in infancy. Child Development, 53, 1008–1015. doi:10.2307/1129141CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohn, J. F., & Tronick, E. Z. (1983). Three-month-old infants' reaction to simulated maternal depression. Child Development, 54, 185–193. doi:10.2307/1129876CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connell, A. M., & Goodman, S. H. (2002). The association between psychopathology in fathers versus mothers and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 746–773. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.128.5.746CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denham, S. A. (1986). Social cognition, prosocial behavior, and emotion in preschoolers: Contextual validation. Child Development, 57, 194–201. doi:10.2307/1130651CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denham, S. A., Blair, K. A., DeMulder, E., Levitas, J., Sawyer, K., Auerbach-Major, S., et al. (2003). Preschool emotional competence: Pathway to social competence. Child Development, 74, 238–256. doi:10.1111/1467–8624.00533CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doan, S. N., & Wang, Q. (2010). Maternal discussions of mental states and behaviors: Relations to emotion situation knowledge in European American and immigrant Chinese children. Child Development, 81, 1490–1503. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01487.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downey, G., & Coyne, J. C. (1990). Children of depressed parents: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 50–76. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.108.1.50CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, J., Brown, J., & Beardsall, L. (1991). Family talk about feeling states and children's later understanding of others' emotions. Developmental Psychology, 27, 448–455. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.27.3.448CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—III. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Durand, K., Gallay, M., Seigneuric, A., Robichon, F., & Baudouin, J.-Y. (2007). The development of facial emotion recognition: The role of configural information. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 97, 14–27. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2006.12.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egeland, B., Weinfield, N. S., Heiester, M., Lawrence, C., Pierce, S., Chippendale, K., et al. (1995). Teaching tasks administration and scoring manual. Unpublished manuscript, University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development.Google Scholar
Ensor, R., Spencer, D., & Hughes, C. (2011). “You feel sad?” Emotion understanding mediates effects of verbal ability and mother–child mutuality on prosocial behaviors: Findings from 2 years to 4 years. Social Development, 20, 93–110. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00572.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, T. E., Rifkin, A., Schaffer, C., & Walker, E. (1986). Facial discrimination and emotional recognition in schizophrenia and affective disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 276–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fine, S. E., Izard, C. E., Mostow, A. J., Trentacosta, C. J., & Ackerman, B. P. (2003). First grade emotion knowledge as a predictor of fifth grade self-reported internalizing behaviors in children from economically disadvantaged families. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 331–342. doi:10.1017/s095457940300018xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
First, M. B., Spitzer, R. L., Gibbon, M., & Williams, J. B. W. (1996). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders: Nonpatient editions. New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute, Biometrics Research Department.Google Scholar
Flom, R., & Bahrick, L. E. (2007). The development of infant discrimination of affect in multimodal and unimodal stimulation: The role of intersensory redundancy. Developmental Psychology, 43, 238–252. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.1.238CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fries, A. B. W., & Pollak, S. D. (2004). Emotion understanding in postinstitutionalized Eastern European children. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 355–369. doi:10.1017/s0954579404044554CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Havighurst, S., Wilson, K., Harley, A., Kehoe, C., Efron, D., & Prior, M. (2012). “Tuning into kids”: Reducing young children's behavior problems using an emotion coaching parenting program. Child Psychiatry & Human Development. doi:10.1007/s10578-012-0322-1Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four Factor Index of Social Status. Unpublished manuscript, Yale University.Google Scholar
Izard, C. (2001). Emotional intelligence or adaptive emotions? Emotion, 1, 249–257. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.1.3.249CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Izard, C. (2002). Translating emotion theory and research into preventive interventions. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 796–824. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.128.5.796CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Izard, C., Fine, S., Schultz, D., Mostow, A., Ackerman, B., & Youngstrom, E. (2001). Emotion knowledge as a predictor of social behavior and academic competence in children at risk. Psychological Science, 12, 18–23. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00304CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Izard, C. E., Haskins, F. W., Schultz, D., Trentacosta, C. J., & King, K. A. (2003). Emotion Matching Task. Unpublished manuscript, University of Delaware.Google Scholar
Izard, C. E., King, K. A., Trentacosta, C. J., Morgan, J. K., Laurenceau, J.-P., Krauthamer-Ewing, E. S., et al. (2008). Accelerating the development of emotion competence in Head Start children: Effects on adaptive and maladaptive behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 369–397. doi:10.1017/S0954579408000175CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, R. H., Pine, D. S., Schoeny, M. E., Henry, D. B., Gollan, J. K., Moy, G., et al. (2011). Maternal depressive history, teen 5HTTLPR genotype, and the processing of emotional faces: Exploring mechanisms of risk. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49, 80–84. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.10.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Joormann, J., Gilbert, K., & Gotlib, I. H. (2010). Emotion identification in girls at high risk for depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 575–582. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02175.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kujawa, A., Hajcak, G., Torpey, D., Kim, J., & Klein, D. N. (2012). Electrocortical reactivity to emotional faces in young children and associations with maternal and paternal depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53, 207–215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leppänen, J. M., & Hietanen, J. K. (2001). Emotion recognition and social adjustment in school-aged girls and boys. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 42, 429–435. doi:10.1111/1467-9450.00255CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leppänen, J. M., & Nelson, C. A. (2009). Tuning the developing brain to social signals of emotions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 37–47. doi:10.1038/nrn2554CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacDonald, P. M., Kirkpatrick, S. W., & Sullivan, L. A. (1996). Schematic drawings of facial expressions for emotion recognition and interpretation by preschool-aged children. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 122, 373–388.Google ScholarPubMed
McElwain, N. L., Halberstadt, A. G., & Volling, B. L. (2007). Mother- and father-reported reactions to children's negative emotions: Relations to young children's emotional understanding and friendship quality. Child Development, 78, 1407–1425. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01074.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mrakotsky, C. (2001). Spatial cognition, face perception, and affect recognition in preschool depressive syndromes: A neuropsychological framework of information processing. Doctoral dissertation, Austrian National Library, Vienna.Google Scholar
Peltola, M. J., Leppänen, J. M., & Hietanen, J. K. (2011). Enhanced cardiac and attentional responding to fearful faces in 7-month-old infants. Psychophysiology, 48, 1291–1298. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01188.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Persad, S. M., & Polivy, J. (1993). Differences between depressed and nondepressed individuals in the recognition of and response to facial emotional cues. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 358–368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollak, S. D., Cicchetti, D., Hornung, K., & Reed, A. (2000). Recognizing emotion in faces: Developmental effects of child abuse and neglect. Developmental Psychology, 36, 679–688. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.36.5.679CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollak, S. D., Messner, M., Kistler, D. J., & Cohn, J. F. (2009). Development of perceptual expertise in emotion recognition. Cognition, 110, 242–247. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.10.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollak, S. D., & Sinha, P. (2002). Effects of early experience on children's recognition of facial displays of emotion. Developmental Psychology, 38, 784–791. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.38.5.784CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rohde, P., Lewinsohn, P. M., & Seeley, J. R. (1997). Comparability of telephone and face-to-face interviews in assessing Axis I and II disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 1593–1598.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubinow, D. R., & Post, R. M. (1992). Impaired recognition of affect in facial expression in depressed patients. Biological Psychiatry, 31, 947–953.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sobin, C., Weissman, M. M., Goldstein, R. B., & Adams, P. (1993). Diagnostic interviewing for family studies: Comparing telephone and face-to-face methods for the diagnosis of lifetime psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric Genetics, 3, 227–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taumoepeau, M., & Ruffman, T. (2006). Mother and infant talk about mental states relates to desire language and emotion understanding. Child Development, 77, 465–481. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00882.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taumoepeau, M., & Ruffman, T. (2008). Stepping stones to others' minds: Maternal talk relates to child mental state language and emotion understanding at 15, 24, and 33 months. Child Development, 79, 284–302. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01126.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trentacosta, C. J., & Fine, S. E. (2010). Emotion knowledge, social competence, and behavior problems in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review. Social Development, 19, 1–29. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00543.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trentacosta, C. J., Izard, C. E., Mostow, A. J., & Fine, S. E. (2006). Children's emotional competence and attentional competence in early elementary school. School Psychology Quarterly, 21, 148–170. doi:10.1521/ scpq.2006.21.2.148CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberg, M. K., & Tronick, E. Z. (1998). Emotional characteristics of infants associated with maternal depression and anxiety. Pediatrics, 102(Suppl. E1), 1298–1304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Widen, S. C., & Russell, J. A. (2003). A closer look at preschoolers' freely produced labels for facial expressions. Developmental Psychology, 39, 114–128. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.39.1.114CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J. B., Gibbon, M., First, M. B., & Spitzer, R. L. (1992). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID): II. Multisite test–retest reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 630–636.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed