Free-labeling facial expressions and emotional situations in children aged 3-7 years: Developmental trajectory and a face inferiority effect

Chinese children (N = 185, aged 3–7 years) were assessed on their abilities to freely label facial expressions and emotional situations. Results indicated that the overall accuracy of free-labeling facial expressions increased relatively quickly in children aged 3–5 years, but slowed down in children aged 5–7 years. In contrast, the overall accuracy of free-labeling emotional situations increased continuously in children aged 3–7 years. In the free-labeling facial expression tasks, children produced labels for happiness, anger, and sadness more easily than fear, surprise, and disgust; in the free-labeling of emotional situation tasks, children produced labels for happiness and sadness more easily than fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. Children performed better on free-labeling emotional situations than on free-labeling facial expressions, especially for happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, and disgust, which confirmed the Face Inferiority Effect. Moreover, the Face Inferiority Effect could be obviously observed in children aged 4 years and became more pronounced with age. Additionally, Bullock & Russell’s model was partly supported in the present study.
Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: Articles Source Type: research