Relationships of self-awareness and facial affect recognition to social communication ability in persons with traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause changes to the injured person’s physical ability, cognitive functioning, and social interactions. Since these attributes largely determine a person’s concept of who they are, TBI poses a threat to sense of self. Due to the importance of social communication skills for community integration, impairment of these skills is a particular threat to sense of self. The present investigation sought to explore characteristics that influence social communication abilities. We hypothesized that both ability to interpret facial affect and self-awareness would be associated with communication ability. We also expected that facial affect recognition would influence self-awareness and that the effect of facial affect recognition on social communication would be partially mediated by self-awareness. For this prospective cohort study, participants were 77 individuals with documented TBI. Of these, 65% were male and 83% sustained severe injuries. The hypothesized association of facial affect recognition with social communication was demonstrated with path analysis as was the effect of facial affect recognition on self-awareness. However, the effect of facial affect recognition on social communication was not mediated by self-awareness. In addition, social communication was associated with employment, social integration, and loneliness. Findings highlighted the importance of social communication after TBI.

KEYWORDS:

• traumatic brain injury
• sense of self
• social communication
• facial affect
• impaired self-awareness

Acknowledgements

The contents of this publication were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR; grant number 90DPTB0016 – Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this publication do not necessarily represent the policy or official views of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. We certify that no party having a direct interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on us or on any organization with which we are associated. We also certify that all financial and material support for this research and work are clearly identified in the title page of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The contents of this publication were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR; grant number 90DPTB0016 – Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems).