Do Socially Anxious Children Show Deficits in Classifying Facial Expressions of Emotions?

Journal of nonverbal Behavior, 26 ,(2): 109-126, Summer 2002

Do Socially Anxious Children Show Deficits in Classifying Facial Expressions of Emotions?

Siebke Melfsen Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents, University of Wuerzburg, Fuechslein Str. 15, D-97080 Wuerzburg, Germany;melfsen@nervenklinik.uni-wuerzburg.de
Irmela Florin, Department of Psychology, Philipps University of Marburg

Studies with socially anxious adults suggest that social anxiety is associated with problems in decoding other persons' facial expressions of emotions. Corresponding studies with socially anxious children are lacking. The aim of the present study was to test whether socially phobic children show deficits in classifying facial expressions of emotions or show a response bias for negative facial expressions. Fifty socially anxious and 25 socially non-anxious children (age 8 to 12) participated in the study. Pictures of faces with either neutral, positive (joyful) or negative (angry, disgusted, sad) facial expressions (24 per category) were presented for 60 ms on a monitor screen in random order. The children were asked to indicate by pressing a key whether the facial expression was neutral, positive, or negative, and to rate how confident they were about their classification. With regard to frequency of errors the socially anxious children reported significantly more often that they saw emotions when neutral faces were presented. Moreover, reaction times were longer. However, they did not feel less certain about their performance. There is neither an indication of an enhanced ability to decode negative facial expressions in socially anxious children, nor was there a specific tendency to interpret neutral or positive faces as negative.

Keywords
decoding, facial expression, emotion, social anxiety, school age children

Article ID: 374966
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* Reproduced with permission of Copyright Service of Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Body Language Linguaggio del Corpo Langage du Corps
Journal of nonverbal Behavior, 26 ,(2): 109-126, Summer 2002 Do Socially Anxious Children Show Deficits in Classifying Facial Expressions of Emotions? Siebke Melfsen Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents, University of Wuerzburg, Fuechslein Str. 15, D-97080 Wuerzburg, Germany;melfsen@nervenklinik.uni-wuerzburg.de Irmela Florin, Department of Psychology, Philipps University of Marburg Studies with socially anxious adults suggest that social anxiety is associated with problems in decoding other persons' facial expressions of emotions. Corresponding studies with socially anxious children are lacking. The aim of the present study was to test whether socially phobic children show deficits in classifying facial expressions of emotions or show a response bias for negative facial expressions. Fifty socially anxious and 25 socially non-anxious children (age 8 to 12) participated in the study. Pictures of faces with either neutral, positive (joyful) or negative (angry, disgusted, sad) facial expressions (24 per category) were presented for 60 ms on a monitor screen in random order. The children were asked to indicate by pressing a key whether the facial expression was neutral, positive, or negative, and to rate how confident they were about their classification. With regard to frequency of errors the socially anxious children reported significantly more often that they saw emotions when neutral faces were presented. Moreover, reaction times were longer. However, they did not feel less certain about their performance. There is neither an indication of an enhanced ability to decode negative facial expressions in socially anxious children, nor was there a specific tendency to interpret neutral or positive faces as negative. Keywords decoding, facial expression, emotion, social anxiety, school age children Article ID: 374966 ………………………………………… * Reproduced with permission of Copyright Service of Kluwer Academic Publishers.