Mattia I Gerin, Essi Viding, Louise Neil, Diana J N Armbruster-Genc, Ze Freeman, Molly Sharp, Harriet Phillips, Eamon J McCrory
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Childhood maltreatment profoundly influences social and emotional development, increasing psychiatric risk. Alterations in the implicit processing of threat-related cues following early abuse and neglect represent a marker of mental health vulnerability. Less is known about how early adversity influences the perception of positive social cues, despite their central role in establishing and maintaining social interactions and their association with better mental health outcomes.Methods: The sample consisted of 42 children and adolescents with substantiated childhood maltreatment experiences and 32 peers (mean age 13.3), matched on age, pubertal status, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and cognitive ability. A computerised experimental task assessed the perceived emotional intensity of positive (happy) and negative (fearful) facial expressions. Mental health symptoms were measured via self- and parental reports, and perceived social support was self-reported.Results: The experience of abuse and neglect was associated with heightened perceived intensity of positive facial cues. Cross-sectional post-hoc moderation and mediation analyses, employing a model-building approach, revealed that in maltreatment-exposed participants: (i) their increased response to positive facial cues was associated with lower symptoms; (ii) the presence of social support accounted for their heightened perceived intensity of positive facial cues; (iii) the presence of social support putatively contributed to lower symptoms by increasing the perceived intensity of positive facial cues. No group differences in perceived intensity of negative expressions were observed.Conclusions: These findings provide fresh insight into how positive faces are processed following maltreatment experience in childhood. Maltreatment experience was found to be associated with heightened perceived intensity of happy faces, which in turn was associated with better mental health and greater levels of social support. This suggests that heightened saliency of positive emotions acts protectively in children with maltreatment experience.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Psychotraumatology (EJPT) is a peer-reviewed open access interdisciplinary journal owned by the European Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS). The European Journal of Psychotraumatology (EJPT) aims to engage scholars, clinicians and researchers in the vital issues of how to understand, prevent and treat the consequences of stress and trauma, including but not limited to, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive disorders, substance abuse, burnout, and neurobiological or physical consequences, using the latest research or clinical experience in these areas. The journal shares ESTSS’ mission to advance and disseminate scientific knowledge about traumatic stress. Papers may address individual events, repeated or chronic (complex) trauma, large scale disasters, or violence. Being open access, the European Journal of Psychotraumatology is also evidence of ESTSS’ stand on free accessibility of research publications to a wider community via the web. The European Journal of Psychotraumatology seeks to attract contributions from academics and practitioners from diverse professional backgrounds, including, but not restricted to, those in mental health, social sciences, and health and welfare services. Contributions from outside Europe are welcome. The journal welcomes original basic and clinical research articles that consolidate and expand the theoretical and professional basis of the field of traumatic stress; Review articles including meta-analyses; short communications presenting new ideas or early-stage promising research; study protocols that describe proposed or ongoing research; case reports examining a single individual or event in a real‑life context; clinical practice papers sharing experience from the clinic; letters to the Editor debating articles already published in the Journal; inaugural Lectures; conference abstracts and book reviews. Both quantitative and qualitative research is welcome.