Emotion Knowledge in Maltreated Preschoolers Amy Mao, MS, Margaret W. Sullivan, PhD Michael Lewis, PhD Institute for the Study of Child Development Department of Pediatrics Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ New Brunswick, NJ

Abstract This study examined emotion knowledge in three groups of 4.5 year-old children: control, neglected, and abused. The children lived in urban neighborhoods of southern NJ and Philadelphia, PA. They were tested on three different components of emotion knowledge: the ability to label expressions when shown a picture, the ability to recognize expressions when given a label of the emotion, and the ability to match emotions to emotion-provoking situations. Emotions examined included happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust. The findings suggest that neglected preschoolers know the least about emotions when compared to control or abused children. Abused children know as much, if not more, about emotions than matched controls.

What Do Young Maltreated Children Know About Emotions? White, middle-class preschoolers accurately label “happy,” “angry,” and “sad” expressions, but “surprise,” “fear,” and “disgust” are less accurately labeled (Michalson & Lewis, 1985, Widen & Russell, 2003). Recognition of all expressions is superior to labeling of expressions (Michalson & Lewis, 1985). Two studies of white, middle-class children agreed that “happy,” “surprise,” “angry,” “sad,” and “disgust” are well matched to their situations by preschoolers (>60% of children correct). However, there is disagreement about whether “fear” is matched at this age (0% vs. 61%) (Michalson & Lewis, 1985, Camras & Allison, 1985). Due to extreme differences in socialization, maltreated children are likely to differ from the norm in their emotion knowledge: Maltreated children identify “anger” more accurately. They discriminate “anger” from “happy” expressions and recognize it with fewer cues (Pollak et al., 1997, 2001). Abused children, in particular, are more likely to recognize “anger” as opposed to “sad,” whereas the reverse is seen in neglected children (Pollak et al., 2000, 2002).

Research Question & Hypotheses Are there differences in emotion knowledge between control and neglected or abused children? We expect maltreated (especially neglected) children to have lower emotion knowledge scores than matched controls. However, neglected children may label, recognize, or match “sad” as well as, or better than, control children. We expect abused children to label, recognize, or match “anger” as well as, or better than, control children. We expect normally socialized, minority urban children to label “happy,” “angry,” and “sad,”and to match “happy” and “sad” to the correct situations as well as children from white, middle-class families. We expect urban minority control children to be better at recognizing expressions than labeling expressions.

Methods Participants: Measures: 53 subjects from five urban neighborhoods of southern NJ and Philadelphia, PA: 29 Control children: Mean age 49.21 months (SD = 2.06) 15 Neglected children: Mean age 48.67 months (SD = 3.79) 9 Abused children: Mean age 49.33 months (SD = 3.28) Measures: Recorded correct responses for each of the three tasks by counting the number of correct responses for: labeling expressions recognizing expressions on both trials matching emotions to “target” situations as either choice Calculated the percentage of children in each maltreatment group who responded correctly to each task. Created an overall Emotion Knowledge Score by adding correct responses across all tasks.

Procedures: Task 1 Labeling of Expressions Participants were shown pictures of a minority child “Felicia,” taken from a standard set of independently verified photographs.* Each photograph depicted Felicia posing one of six different facial expressions of emotion: happy, surprised, angry, sad, scared, or disgusted. In order to assess their ability to label expressions, children were asked, “What kind of face is Felicia making? How does she feel? ” Responses were recorded verbatim on a scoring sheet. * Photographs were generously provided by Linda Camras, PhD, Department of Psychology, DePaul University.

Procedures: Task 2 Recognition of Expressions All six pictures of Felicia posing the previous expressions were randomly placed in front of the child in a 2 * 3 format. Children were told, “Point to the ________ face” and asked, “How does Felicia look when she’s ________? ” After going through the six expressions, the pictures were shuffled and the task was repeated.

Procedures: Task 3 Matching Emotions to Situations Children were told ten simple stories which would evoke certain emotions in Felicia. The stories were illustrated by line drawings in which faces were left blank. Children were then shown all six faces of Felicia and asked, “Which face do you think Felicia will have in the story?” After allowing the children to make their first choice, they were asked, “Did Felicia make any other faces?”

Results: Task 1 Labeling of Expressions On average, neglected children labeled the least number of all expressions (Figure 1). Neglected children only labeled “sad,” while control and abused children labeled more than one emotion (Figure 2). Neglected children were less likely to label “angry” than control or abused children (Table 1). Abused children were more likely to label “happy” than control or neglected children (Table 1).

Results: Task 1 Labeling of Expressions Figure 1. Number of expressions correctly labeled Figure 2. Children labeling more than one expression * Out of 6 expressions, only 3 (Happy, Angry, Sad) were expected to be correctly labeled.

Results: Task 1 Labeling of Expressions Table 1. Percentage of children correctly labeling expressions * Within columns, significant differences found at p <= 0.05

Results: Task 2 Recognition of Expressions Neglected children recognized the least number of expressions. Figure 3. Number of expressions correctly recognized

Results: Task 2 Recognition of Expressions Neglected children recognized “happy” the least. Neglected and abused children recognized “surprise” less than control children. Neglected children tended to recognize “fear” the least. Table 2. Percentage of children correctly recognizing expressions * Within columns, significant differences found at p <= 0.05 # Within columns, trends found at p <= 0.06

Results: Task 3 Matching Emotions to Situations Neglected children matched the fewest emotions to “target” situations, while abused children matched the most (Figure 4). Out of the 3 “anger” situations, only one showed a difference by group. In the situation where Felicia’s tower of blocks was knocked over by another child, neglected children chose “anger” less than the other groups (Table 3). Abused children tended to choose surprise in the “surprise” situation more than control and neglected children (Table 3).

Results: Task 3 Matching Emotions to Situations Figure 4. Number of emotions correctly matched to emotion-provoking situations

Results: Task 3 Matching Emotions to Situations Table 3. Percentage of children correctly matching emotions to emotion-provoking situations * Within columns, significant differences found at p <= 0.05 # Within columns, trends found at p <= 0.06

Results: Overall Emotion Knowledge Overall, neglected children knew the least about emotions. Abused children and matched controls were comparable in their knowledge about emotions. Figure 5. Overall number of expressions correctly labeled, recognized and matched

Summary & Conclusion Overall, neglected preschoolers knew the least about emotions compared to control and abused preschoolers, but they performed well on all three tasks for “sad.” Abused children labeled and recognized “angry,” and chose anger in “angry” situations as well as control. Minority control and abused children labeled “angry,” “happy,” and “sad” and matched “angry,” “happy,” and “sad” to the correct situations as well as white, middle-class children. Abused children also matched “surprise” to the correct situation. Preschoolers from our sample were not better at recognizing expressions than labeling expressions. Maltreated children are different from matched controls in emotion knowledge. Neglected children are the least knowledgeable, possibly due to their lack of parental interactions, while abused children know as much about emotions as minority control children.

References Michalson, L., & Lewis, M. (1985). What do children know about emotions and when do they know it? In M. Lewis & C. Saarni (Eds.), The socialization of emotions (pp. 117-140). New York: Plenum. Camras, L. A., & Allison, K. (1985). Children’s understanding of emotional facial expressions and verbal labels. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 9, 84-94. Pollak, S. D., Cicchetti, D., Klorman, R., & Brumaghim, J. T. (1997). Cognitive brain event-related potentials and emotion processing in maltreated children. Child Development, 68, 773-787. 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. Pollak, S. D., Klorman, R., Thatcher, J. E., Cicchetti, D. (2001). P3b reflects maltreated children’s reactions to facial displays of emotion. Psychophysiology, 38, 267-274. Pollak, S. D., & Sinha, P. (2002). Effects of early experience on children’s recognition of facial displays of emotion. Developmental Psychology, 38, 784-791. Widen , S. C., & Russell, J. A. (2003). A closer look at preschoolers’ freely produced labels for facial expressions. Developmental psychology, 39, 11-125.