Impact of an anxious social situation on emotional facial expressions (EFEs) recognition in children

This study addresses the relationship between the capacity of emotional facial expressions (EFEs) recognition and self-esteem in children placed in an anxious social situation. Seventy children (8 – 12 years) were placed in an anxious social situation of performance in which they were instructed to count aloud backwards, beginning at 200 in decrements of 13. After that, children were assessed on a decoding test of 16 photographs depicting EFE. For each photograph, they evaluated the presence of nine types of emotions. They also completed the Self-Perception Profile for Children (Pierrehumbert et al., 1987). No correlations emerged between the accuracy of EFE recognition and an increase of anxious feelings after the anxious social situation. However, self-esteem was correlated with performance on the EFE recognition test. Moreover, the lower the child’s level of self-esteem was, the more he/she perceived negative emotions in EFEs. In conclusion, social anxiety doesn’t seem to interfere with EFEs recognition performance in an anxious social situation. However, low level of self-esteem in children appears to be associated with deficits and interpretative bias in EFEs recognition in an anxious social situation.