Developmental Psychology and Socialization Department, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 26;19(11):6507. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116507.
Children born preterm (<37 weeks’ gestation) show a specific vulnerability for socio-emotional difficulties, which may lead to an increased likelihood of developing behavioral and psychiatric problems in adolescence and adulthood. The accurate decoding of emotional signals from faces represents a fundamental prerequisite for early social interactions, allowing children to derive information about others’ feelings and intentions. The present study aims to explore possible differences between preterm and full-term children in the ability to detect emotional expressions, as well as possible relationships between this ability and socio-emotional skills and problem behaviors during everyday activities. We assessed 55 school-age children (n = 34 preterm and n = 21 full-term) with a cognitive battery that ensured comparable cognitive abilities between the two groups. Moreover, children were asked to identify emotional expressions from pictures of peers’ faces (Emotion Recognition Task). Finally, children’s emotional, social and behavioral outcomes were assessed with parent-reported questionnaires. The results revealed that preterm children were less accurate than full-term children in detecting positive emotional expressions and they showed poorer social and behavioral outcomes. Notably, correlational analyses showed a relationship between the ability to recognize emotional expressions and socio-emotional functioning. The present study highlights that early difficulties in decoding emotional signals from faces may be critically linked to emotional and behavioral regulation problems, with important implications for the development of social skills and effective interpersonal interactions.
早产儿（<37 周妊娠）表现出特定的社会情感困难易感性，这可能导致他们在青少年和成年期更有可能出现行为和精神问题。准确解码面部的情感信号是早期社会互动的基本前提，使儿童能够获取他人感受和意图的信息。本研究旨在探讨早产儿和足月儿在识别情绪表达能力方面的差异，以及这种能力与日常活动中的社会情感技能和问题行为之间的可能关系。我们评估了 55 名学龄儿童（n=34 名早产儿和 n=21 名足月儿），使用认知电池确保两组之间具有可比的认知能力。此外，要求儿童从同伴面部图片中识别情绪表达（情绪识别任务）。最后，使用家长报告的问卷评估儿童的情绪、社会和行为结果。结果表明，早产儿在识别积极情绪表达方面的准确性低于足月儿，并且他们表现出较差的社会和行为结果。值得注意的是，相关分析表明识别情绪表达的能力与社会情感功能之间存在关系。本研究强调了早期从面部信号解码情感的困难可能与情绪和行为调节问题密切相关，这对社交技能和有效的人际互动的发展具有重要意义。
