Hindt Lauren A, Davis Laurel, Schubert Erin C, Poehlmann-Tynan Julie, Shlafer Rebecca J
Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago IL, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN, USA.
Front Psychol. 2016 Jul 25;7:1095. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01095. eCollection 2016.
Approximately five million children in the United States have experienced a co-resident parent's incarceration in jail or prison. Parental incarceration is associated with multiple risk factors for maladjustment, which may contribute to the increased likelihood of behavioral problems in this population. Few studies have examined early predictors of maladjustment among children with incarcerated parents, limiting scholars' understanding about potential points for prevention and intervention. Emotion recognition skills may play a role in the development of maladjustment and may be amenable to intervention. The current study examined whether emotion recognition skills differed between 3- to 8-year-old children with and without jailed parents. We hypothesized that children with jailed parents would have a negative bias in processing emotions and less accuracy compared to children without incarcerated parents. Data were drawn from 128 families, including 75 children (53.3% male, M = 5.37 years) with jailed parents and 53 children (39.6% male, M = 5.02 years) without jailed parents. Caregivers in both samples provided demographic information. Children performed an emotion recognition task in which they were asked to produce a label for photos expressing six different emotions (i.e., happy, surprised, neutral, sad, angry, and fearful). For scoring, the number of positive and negative labels were totaled; the number of negative labels provided for neutral and positive stimuli were totaled (measuring negative bias/overextension of negative labels); and valence accuracy (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral) and label accuracy were calculated. Results indicated a main effect of parental incarceration on the number of positive labels provided; children with jailed parents presented significantly fewer positive emotions than the comparison group. There was also a main effect of parental incarceration on negative bias (the overextension of negative labels); children with jailed parents had a negative bias compared to children without jailed parents. However, these findings did not hold when controlling for child age, race/ethnicity, receipt of special education services, and caregiver education. The results provide some evidence for the effect of the context of parental incarceration in the development of negative emotion recognition biases. Limitations and implications for future research and interventions are discussed.
在美国，约有500万儿童经历过与他们共同居住的父母被监禁在监狱的情况。父母被监禁与多种适应不良的风险因素相关，这可能导致该群体出现行为问题的可能性增加。很少有研究考察过父母被监禁的儿童中适应不良的早期预测因素，这限制了学者们对潜在预防和干预点的理解。情绪识别技能可能在适应不良的发展中起作用，并且可能适合进行干预。当前的研究考察了有和没有被监禁父母的3至8岁儿童在情绪识别技能上是否存在差异。我们假设，与没有被监禁父母的儿童相比，有被监禁父母的儿童在处理情绪时会有负面偏差且准确性较低。数据来自128个家庭，其中包括75名有被监禁父母的儿童（53.3%为男性，平均年龄5.37岁）和53名没有被监禁父母的儿童（39.6%为男性，平均年龄5.02岁）。两个样本中的照顾者都提供了人口统计学信息。儿童进行了一项情绪识别任务，在该任务中，他们被要求为表达六种不同情绪（即快乐、惊讶、中性、悲伤、愤怒和恐惧）的照片贴上标签。在评分时，统计正面和负面标签的数量；统计为中性和正面刺激提供的负面标签数量（测量负面偏差/负面标签的过度延伸）；并计算效价准确性（即正面、负面和中性）和标签准确性。结果表明，父母被监禁对所提供的正面标签数量有主效应；有被监禁父母的儿童所表现出的积极情绪明显少于对照组。父母被监禁对负面偏差（负面标签的过度延伸）也有主效应；与没有被监禁父母的儿童相比，有被监禁父母的儿童存在负面偏差。然而，在控制了儿童年龄、种族/民族、接受特殊教育服务情况和照顾者教育程度后，这些发现并不成立。这些结果为父母被监禁的背景在负面情绪识别偏差发展中的作用提供了一些证据。讨论了研究的局限性以及对未来研究和干预的启示。
