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Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified), Open
Journal article
Impaired Fear Recognition and Social Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescence
Journal of child and family studies, v 25(11), pp 3381-3386
01 Nov 2016
PMCID: PMC5222562
PMID: 28082827
Abstract
This study represents the first examination of adolescent anxiety in relation to peer emotion recognition, rather than adult emotion recognition. Additionally, we examine potential mechanisms for the development of social anxiety in females. Facial emotion recognition (FER) is important for accurate social cognition, which is impaired in individuals with various disorders, including anxiety disorders. Social anxiety often onsets during adolescence, is observed more commonly in females, and is often associated with FER difficulties. Given the importance of peer interaction during adolescence, and some evidence that FER may differ as a function of the stimuli (adolescent or adult faces), we sought to study FER in relation to social anxiety symptoms using stimuli portraying adolescent faces. Male and female adolescents (N = 64) completed an online survey in which they rated 257 child and adolescent emotional faces and completed a self-report measure of social anxiety symptoms. We examined differences in emotion recognition (e.g., fear, anger, sadness) between individuals with high and low levels of social anxiety symptoms. Adolescents with high social anxiety symptoms were more likely to have problems correctly identifying fearful expressions (90.55 % accuracy) compared to adolescents with low social anxiety symptoms (96.00 % accuracy; t = 2.375, p = .021, d = 0.594), and this effect was observed exclusively in female adolescents. The observed sex difference in accurate identification of fearful faces in relation to social anxiety could suggest a potential mechanism for social anxiety development in adolescent females.
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Details
- Title
- Impaired Fear Recognition and Social Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescence
- Creators
- Andrea Trubanova Wieckowski - Virginia TechMarika C. Coffman - Virginia TechJungmeen Kim-Spoon - Virginia Polytech Inst & State Univ, Dept Psychol, 460 Turner St,Collegiate Sq 207, Blacksburg, VA 24060 USASusan W. White - Virginia Polytech Inst & State Univ, Dept Psychol, 460 Turner St,Collegiate Sq 207, Blacksburg, VA 24060 USAJohn A. Richey - Virginia TechThomas H. Ollendick - Virginia Tech
- Publication Details
- Journal of child and family studies, v 25(11), pp 3381-3386
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 6
- Grant note
- R01MH074777 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) NIMH; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R34 MH096915 / National Institutes of Mental Health; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- A.J. Drexel Autism Institute
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000386117400018
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84978148229
- Other Identifier
- 991021861834604721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Family Studies
- Psychiatry
- Psychology, Developmental