1. Objectifs

Intentions :
This «study focuses on parents ability to recognize the six basic emotions in children faces. The objective of the current research is to examine the moderating role of history of childhood maltreatment on the relationship between emotion recognition and sensitive behaviors.» (p. 3)

Questions/Hypothèses :
The authors «predict that parents with a history of childhood maltreatment will have more difficulties recognizing emotions in children faces and that their perceptual abilities will be less predictive of their sensitive behaviors.» (p. 3)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’échantillon est composé de 58 dyades mère-enfant provenant de la région de l’Outaouais (Québec). Les interactions mère-enfant ont été captées par caméra vidéo.

Instruments :
- Questionnaire
- Grille d’observation

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The «results are consistent with studies that focused on the perception of children’s auditory signals. Hearing a child’s distress causes a stressful reaction in parents. […] This reactivity is also observed in physiological reactions, such as increased heart and respiratory rhythms [and] increased electrical conductivity […]. It appears that this responsiveness to child distress is particularly apparent among mothers who experienced childhood maltreatment [or] more coercive discipline […], and those with an insecure style […]. Moreover, mothers who show greater behavioral reactions to crying children tend to show less sensitive behaviors during mother-child interactions […]. [Theses results] indicate that visual emotional signals are perceived similarly to auditory ones. Like for perception of auditory signals, a more acute perception of facial emotions is related to less sensitive behaviors toward the child for mothers who experienced severe maltreatment as children. [This study confirms] that mothers tend to demonstrate more sensitive behaviors toward their child during free play than during a structured task […]. [The] structured task was designed to be representative of a daily interaction between mothers and their preschool child, which is playing together freely and then having more structured periods such as asking the child to comply. Despite differences in mother-child interactions from one context to the other, [the] study indicates that the underlying mechanism linking the emotion recognition and sensitive behaviors remains the same, affecting the daily life of most mother-child dyads.» (p. 7)