Deliberate emotional expressions of socially anxious children and their mothers.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether socially anxious children show deficits in their deliberate facial expression of emotions. To test for potential mother-child transmission effects, the mothers' facial expressions were also assessed. Fifty socially anxious and 25 socially nonanxious children (8-12 years) and their mothers participated in a facial expression posing task. The expressions produced were coded using Ekman and Friesen's (1978) Facial Action Coding System (FACS). In addition, naive raters rated their quality of emotion. FACS analyses indicated that socially anxious children show a reduced general facial activity, have a more restricted facial repertoire and differ qualitatively from controls in their facial expression of emotions. Similarly, the global ratings indicated that the socially anxious children's posed facial expressions are less accurate. For the mothers no differences between groups were found when global ratings were used. However, the FACS data demonstrate that the facial expressions of mothers of socially anxious children are less intense compared to controls. It is possible that the decreased intensity of the mothers' facial expressiveness makes it more difficult for the socially anxious children to learn adequate facial expressions.

[1]  S. Melfsen,et al.  Die deutsche Fassung des social phobia and anxiety inventory for children (SPAI-C-D): Psychometrische Eigenschaften und Normierung , 1999 .

[2]  S. Hofmann,et al.  Issues related to social anxiety among controls in social phobia research , 1996 .

[3]  Carroll E. Izard,et al.  Shyness as a Discrete Emotion , 1986 .

[4]  P. Ekman,et al.  Coherence between expressive and experiential systems in emotion , 1994 .

[5]  B. Depaulo,et al.  Nonverbal behavior and self-presentation. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[6]  B. Knutson.  Facial expressions of emotion influence interpersonal trait inferences , 1996 .

[7]  K. Dodge,et al.  Behavior patterns of socially rejected and neglected preadolescents: The roles of social approach and aggression , 1982, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[8]  P. Ekman,et al.  Facial signs of emotional experience. , 1980 .

[9]  Bernard Rimé,et al.  Fundamentals of nonverbal behavior , 1991 .

[10]  D. Beidel,et al.  A New Inventory to Assess Childhood Social Anxiety and Phobia: The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children. , 1995 .

[11]  P. Ekman,et al.  Deliberate facial movement. , 1980 .

[12]  P. Ekman.  Unmasking The Face , 1975 .

[13]  P. Ekman,et al.  Behavioral Markers and Recognizability of the Smile of Enjoyment , 1993 .

[14]  Paul Ekman,et al.  Is the startle reaction an emotion , 1985 .

[15]  C. Boyatzis,et al.  Children's facial and gestural decoding and encoding: Relations between skills and with popularity , 1994 .