Do Masks Impact Emotion Recognition in Children?: The Role of Type of Emotion, Age and Parental Anxiety

Öz

This study compared 60 preschoolers’ (47-74 month-olds) emotion recognition performance from masked vs. unmasked faces, and investigated whether the type of emotion, age of the person displaying the emotion, and parental health anxiety are linked with children’s emotion recognition scores. Children completed a computerized emotion recognition task, and parents filled out The Health Anxiety Inventory. Overall, children identified emotions better from unmasked vs. masked faces; however, from among happiness, anger, disgust, sadness and fear, the only difference emerged in recognition of sadness, as children identified sadness less accurately in masked than unmasked faces. Moreover, children were more accurate when reading emotions from adults’ than children’s masked faces, and their performance increased as a function of parents’ health anxiety. In general, these findings pointed to the negative impact of facial masks on emotion recognition and highlighted the critical role of children’s social experiences in reading others’ emotions.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Emotion Recognition
• Mask
• Pandemic
• Health Anxiety
• Preschool Period

Maske Çocuklarda Duygu Tanımayı Etkiler mi?: Duygunun Çeşidinin, Yaşın ve Ebeveyn Kaygısının Rolü

Öz

Mevcut çalışma, 47-74 aylık 60 okul öncesi çocuğun maskeli yüzlerden duygu tanıma performanslarını maskesiz yüzlerden duygu tanıma performanslarıyla karşılaştırmış, ayrıca çocukların duygu tanıma performanslarını etkileyebilecek olan duygunun çeşidi, duyguyu sergileyen kişinin yaşı ve ebeveynlerin sağlık kaygıları gibi sosyal faktörlerin rolünü incelemiştir. Çocuklar duygu tanıma görevini tamamlamış, ebeveynler ise Sağlık Anksiyetesi Ölçeği’ni doldurmuşlardır. Çocuklar maskesiz yüzlerdeki duyguları maskeli yüzlerdeki duygulardan daha doğru tanımış; ancak mutluluk, öfke, tiksinme, üzüntü ve korku arasından yalnızca üzüntüyü maskeli yüzlerden maskesiz yüzlere kıyasla daha zor anlamışlardır. Çocuklar maskeli yetişkin yüzlerindeki duyguları maskeli çocuk yüzlerindeki duygulardan daha doğru anlamış, ebeveynlerin sağlık kaygısıyla çocukların maskeli yetişkinlerin duygularını doğru tanıma performansları arasında olumlu ilişki ortaya çıkmıştır. Sonuçlar çocukların duygu tanıma süreçlerinde maskenin yüzdeki ipuçlarını gizlediğini ve özellikle üzüntünün anlaşılmasını güçleştirdiğini göstermiştir. Çocukların maskeli yetişkinlerin duygularını maskeli çocuklarınkinden daha doğru tanımaları ve ebeveynlerinin sağlık kaygılarının maskeli yüzlerden duygu tanımayla ilişkisi sosyal deneyimler ve duygu tanıma becerilerinin bağlantılı olduğunu göstermiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Duygu Tanıma
• Maske
• Pandemi
• Sağlık Kaygısı
• Okul Öncesi Dönem

Kaynakça

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