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Facial Emotion Recognition in Children with High Functioning Autism and Children with Social Phobia

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Abstract

Recognizing facial affect is essential for effective social functioning. This study examines emotion recognition abilities in children aged 7–13 years with High Functioning Autism (HFA = 19), Social Phobia (SP = 17), or typical development (TD = 21). Findings indicate that all children identified certain emotions more quickly (e.g., happy < anger, disgust, sad < fear) and more accurately (happy) than other emotions (disgust). No evidence was found for negative interpretation biases in children with HFA or SP (i.e., all groups showed similar ability to discriminate neutral from non-neutral facial expressions). However, distinct between-group differences emerged when considering facial expression intensity. Specifically, children with HFA detected mild affective expressions less accurately than TD peers. Behavioral ratings of social effectiveness or social anxiety were uncorrelated with facial affect recognition abilities across children. Findings have implications for social skills treatment programs targeting youth with skill deficits.

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Notes

  1. Briefly, when participants are not randomly assigned to group (as in the current study), variables that covary simultaneously with the independent and dependent variables are unsuitable to use as covariates within ANOVA due to the inability to separate the systematically shared variance attributable to the independent variable and covariate [69].

  2. We repeated all analyses after excluding children with HFA who were comorbid for ADHD or social anxiety. The pattern of results for all omnibus tests was identical and relevant post hoc analyses were nearly identical.

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Acknowledgement

We thank Dr. Liqiang Ni for his helpful consultation on statistical matters.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Nina Wong, Deborah C. Beidel, Dustin E. Sarver & Valerie Sims

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  1. Nina Wong
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Correspondence to Nina Wong.

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Wong, N., Beidel, D.C., Sarver, D.E. et al. Facial Emotion Recognition in Children with High Functioning Autism and Children with Social Phobia. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 43, 775–794 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0296-z

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