1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«[T]he main objective of this study is to examine facial expression recognition ability using children facial expressions of emotion among mothers reporting a history of child maltreatment.» (p. 19-20)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Participants were recruited from two community organizations in Québec, as well as from advertising on Facebook and advertising posters at the University of Québec in Outaouais. […] Fifty-seven French speaking canadian mothers and their biological child aged between 2 and 5 years old participated in the study.» (p. 20)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«[The] results indicate that maltreatment history influences the ability of mothers to recognize and discriminate the emotions expressed on children’s faces. Specifically, [the author] found that a history of physical abuse is related to deficits in anger and fear recognition. When exposed to pictures of children, mothers who experienced physical abuse in their childhoods are less accurate in the perception of anger than non-physically abused mothers, and they also tend to misidentify fear with surprise more often. Although our findings suggest that physical abuse impairs recognition accuracy among mothers when exposed to children’s facial expressions, they do not allow us to draw conclusions on the mechanisms underlying the observed difficulties.» (p. 26) Morevoer, «[s]trictly in terms of facial expression recognition, results from the current study suggest that mothers, in general, were significantly less accurate in recognizing facial expressions of disgust, fear, and surprise, than emotions of anger, sadness, and happiness. Similarly, [the] findings show a decreased recognition of sadness compared to anger, as well as a decreased recognition of disgust and fear in comparison with surprise.» (p. 28)