Emotion Recognition in Preterm and Full-Term School-Age Children

Letizia Della Longa; Chiara Nosarti; Teresa Farroni

doi:10.3390/ijerph19116507

Emotion Recognition in Preterm and Full-Term School-Age Children

Letizia Della Longa, Chiara Nosarti, Teresa Farroni^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Children born preterm (<37 weeks’ gestation) show a specific vulnerability for socio-emotional difficulties, which may lead to an increased likelihood of developing behavioral and psychiatric problems in adolescence and adulthood. The accurate decoding of emotional signals from faces represents a fundamental prerequisite for early social interactions, allowing children to derive information about others’ feelings and intentions. The present study aims to explore possible differences between preterm and full-term children in the ability to detect emotional expressions, as well as possible relationships between this ability and socio-emotional skills and problem behaviors during everyday activities. We assessed 55 school-age children (n = 34 preterm and n = 21 full-term) with a cognitive battery that ensured comparable cognitive abilities between the two groups. Moreover, children were asked to identify emotional expressions from pictures of peers’ faces (Emotion Recognition Task). Finally, children’s emotional, social and behavioral outcomes were assessed with parent-reported questionnaires. The results revealed that preterm children were less accurate than full-term children in detecting positive emotional expressions and they showed poorer social and behavioral outcomes. Notably, correlational analyses showed a relationship between the ability to recognize emotional expressions and socio-emotional functioning. The present study highlights that early difficulties in decoding emotional signals from faces may be critically linked to emotional and behavioral regulation problems, with important implications for the development of social skills and effective interpersonal interactions.

Original language	English
Article number	6507
Journal	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume	19
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116507
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2022

Keywords

development
emotion recognition
facial expressions
preterm children
socio-emotional functioning

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.3390/ijerph19116507

Cite this

@article{2398615f90384c1f9e9f8be286a3cd17,

title = "Emotion Recognition in Preterm and Full-Term School-Age Children",

abstract = "Children born preterm (<37 weeks{\textquoteright} gestation) show a specific vulnerability for socio-emotional difficulties, which may lead to an increased likelihood of developing behavioral and psychiatric problems in adolescence and adulthood. The accurate decoding of emotional signals from faces represents a fundamental prerequisite for early social interactions, allowing children to derive information about others{\textquoteright} feelings and intentions. The present study aims to explore possible differences between preterm and full-term children in the ability to detect emotional expressions, as well as possible relationships between this ability and socio-emotional skills and problem behaviors during everyday activities. We assessed 55 school-age children (n = 34 preterm and n = 21 full-term) with a cognitive battery that ensured comparable cognitive abilities between the two groups. Moreover, children were asked to identify emotional expressions from pictures of peers{\textquoteright} faces (Emotion Recognition Task). Finally, children{\textquoteright}s emotional, social and behavioral outcomes were assessed with parent-reported questionnaires. The results revealed that preterm children were less accurate than full-term children in detecting positive emotional expressions and they showed poorer social and behavioral outcomes. Notably, correlational analyses showed a relationship between the ability to recognize emotional expressions and socio-emotional functioning. The present study highlights that early difficulties in decoding emotional signals from faces may be critically linked to emotional and behavioral regulation problems, with important implications for the development of social skills and effective interpersonal interactions.",

keywords = "development, emotion recognition, facial expressions, preterm children, socio-emotional functioning",

author = "{Della Longa}, Letizia and Chiara Nosarti and Teresa Farroni",

note = "Funding Information: Funding: T.F. was supported by the Wellcome Trust (073985/Z/03/Z) and Pro Beneficentia Stiftung (Liechtenstein). C.N. was supported by the Medical Research Council, UK (MR/S026460/1), Action Medical Research (GN2606) and Dangoor Education. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

year = "2022",

month = jun,

day = "1",

doi = "10.3390/ijerph19116507",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

journal = "International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health",

issn = "1661-7827",

publisher = "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)",

number = "11",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Emotion Recognition in Preterm and Full-Term School-Age Children

AU - Della Longa, Letizia

AU - Nosarti, Chiara

AU - Farroni, Teresa

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: T.F. was supported by the Wellcome Trust (073985/Z/03/Z) and Pro Beneficentia Stiftung (Liechtenstein). C.N. was supported by the Medical Research Council, UK (MR/S026460/1), Action Medical Research (GN2606) and Dangoor Education. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2022/6/1

Y1 - 2022/6/1

N2 - Children born preterm (<37 weeks’ gestation) show a specific vulnerability for socio-emotional difficulties, which may lead to an increased likelihood of developing behavioral and psychiatric problems in adolescence and adulthood. The accurate decoding of emotional signals from faces represents a fundamental prerequisite for early social interactions, allowing children to derive information about others’ feelings and intentions. The present study aims to explore possible differences between preterm and full-term children in the ability to detect emotional expressions, as well as possible relationships between this ability and socio-emotional skills and problem behaviors during everyday activities. We assessed 55 school-age children (n = 34 preterm and n = 21 full-term) with a cognitive battery that ensured comparable cognitive abilities between the two groups. Moreover, children were asked to identify emotional expressions from pictures of peers’ faces (Emotion Recognition Task). Finally, children’s emotional, social and behavioral outcomes were assessed with parent-reported questionnaires. The results revealed that preterm children were less accurate than full-term children in detecting positive emotional expressions and they showed poorer social and behavioral outcomes. Notably, correlational analyses showed a relationship between the ability to recognize emotional expressions and socio-emotional functioning. The present study highlights that early difficulties in decoding emotional signals from faces may be critically linked to emotional and behavioral regulation problems, with important implications for the development of social skills and effective interpersonal interactions.

AB - Children born preterm (<37 weeks’ gestation) show a specific vulnerability for socio-emotional difficulties, which may lead to an increased likelihood of developing behavioral and psychiatric problems in adolescence and adulthood. The accurate decoding of emotional signals from faces represents a fundamental prerequisite for early social interactions, allowing children to derive information about others’ feelings and intentions. The present study aims to explore possible differences between preterm and full-term children in the ability to detect emotional expressions, as well as possible relationships between this ability and socio-emotional skills and problem behaviors during everyday activities. We assessed 55 school-age children (n = 34 preterm and n = 21 full-term) with a cognitive battery that ensured comparable cognitive abilities between the two groups. Moreover, children were asked to identify emotional expressions from pictures of peers’ faces (Emotion Recognition Task). Finally, children’s emotional, social and behavioral outcomes were assessed with parent-reported questionnaires. The results revealed that preterm children were less accurate than full-term children in detecting positive emotional expressions and they showed poorer social and behavioral outcomes. Notably, correlational analyses showed a relationship between the ability to recognize emotional expressions and socio-emotional functioning. The present study highlights that early difficulties in decoding emotional signals from faces may be critically linked to emotional and behavioral regulation problems, with important implications for the development of social skills and effective interpersonal interactions.

KW - development

KW - emotion recognition

KW - facial expressions

KW - preterm children

KW - socio-emotional functioning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130982430&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19116507

DO - 10.3390/ijerph19116507

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85130982430

SN - 1661-7827

VL - 19

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

IS - 11

M1 - 6507

ER -

Emotion Recognition in Preterm and Full-Term School-Age Children

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this