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Intimate Partner Violence Exposure and Childhood Psychopathology: Associations with Discriminating Fearful and Angry Faces in Young Children.
- Source :
-
Journal of family violence [J Fam Violence] 2021 Nov; Vol. 36 (8), pp. 967-978. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Feb 01. - Publication Year :
- 2021
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Abstract
- Purpose: Childhood exposure to traumatic violence may shape how children respond to threatening faces and increase risk for psychopathology. Maltreated children may exhibit altered processing of threatening faces; however, the effects of witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) on children's discrimination of facial expressions is under-studied. Emotional face processing differentially relates to psychopathology, with some evidence suggesting improved detection of angry faces in children with fear-related anxiety symptoms, whereas externalizing symptoms are associated with poorer detection of fearful faces and perhaps emotional faces broadly.<br />Method: In this cross-sectional study, we examined discrimination of threatening emotional faces (angry, fearful) in relation to experiences of probable abuse and witnessing of physical IPV, as well as psychopathology. Children (N = 137, mean age = 5.01 years, SD = 0.81) completed a "face in the crowd task" designed to examine discrimination of angry and fearful faces. Children either searched for an angry face among fearful distractor faces or a fearful face among angry distractors. Probable child abuse, witnessed IPV, and symptoms were assessed in semi-structured maternal interviews.<br />Results: Children who witnessed violence showed poorer accuracy when fearful faces were the target; however, effects for probable abuse were non-significant. Greater fear-related anxiety symptoms were associated with poorer accuracy for fearful faces. Externalizing symptoms were associated with poorer overall accuracy.<br />Conclusions: Findings suggest that IPV and fear-related anxiety symptoms were associated with difficulty detecting fearful faces when angry distractors were present, consistent with prior research. Implications of violence- and symptom-associated deficits in emotional face processing are discussed.<br />Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0885-7482
- Volume :
- 36
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Journal of family violence
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 36337752
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-020-00242-5