Duration of face mask exposure matters: evidence from Swiss and Brazilian kindergartners’ ability to recognise emotions

Figures & data

Table 1. Sample characteristics.

Country	N	Percent girls	Mean age in months (SD)	Age range	Have sibling(s)
Switzerland	38	63%	58.1 (5.0)	50–64	82%
Brazil	41	54%	56.9 (5.8)	49–65	82%

Table 2. Education status of caregivers.

Completed Education	Switzerland	Brazil
Primary education dropout	0%	2%
Primary education	0%	17%
Secondary education (High-school equivalent)	13%	34%
Secondary education dropout	0%	7%
Tertiary education (University equivalent)	87%	39%

Figure 1. An example trial in the exclusion task.

Figure 2. An example trial of the emotion recognition task (mask condition).

Table 3. The mean and SD of children’s total score on the emotion recognition task.

Condition	Emotion	Brazil		Switzerland
		M	SD	M	SD
No cover	Angry	98.17	6.59	96.71	10.35
	Happy	97.56	7.51	93.42	16.11
	Sad	96.34	10.55	94.74	10.33
Mask	Angry	92.68	12.80	89.47	13.79
	Happy	88.41	18.62	73.03	22.04
	Sad	83.54	21.37	83.55	20.37
Sunglasses	Angry	96.34	10.55	88.16	17.18
	Happy	96.95	9.99	92.76	16.34
	Sad	92.68	16.05	91.45	15.68

Table 4. Summary of the logistic regression predicting emotion recognition.

	Chisq	Df	Pr(>Chisq)
Condition	72.71	2	<. 001***
Emotion	8.63	2	.013**
Country	2.72	1	.099
Mask exposure	13.31	1	<.001***
Condition × Emotion	10.63	4	0.031*
Condition × Country	0.54	2	.763
Emotion × Country	7.98	2	.018*
Condition × Emotion × Country	2.32	4	.677

Figure 3 .#Emotion recognition score as a function of emotion, condition and country.

Note. Error bars indicate 95% CI.

Figure 4. The relationship between country and emotion recognition mediated by the hours of mask exposure.

Table

Event	Description	Date
	Switzerland
School closing	School closed	13 March 2020
School opening	Mandatory schools opening again	11 May 2020
Mask mandates	Mask mandates in public transportation	06 July 2020
	Mask mandates in enclosed public spaces (including public schools) for adults from 16 years.	19 October 2020
	Mandatory mask only on public transportation and in healthcare institutions	17 February 2021
	Mandatory mask on public transportation and in healthcare institutions lifted	17 February 2022
	Brazil
School closing	School closed	From 13 March 2020 to 22 March 2020
School opening	Mandatory gradual opening of schools	From 13 July 2020 to 30 November 2021
Mask mandates	Mask mandate in outdoor and indoor public places.	04 May 2020
	Mask mandate lifted in outdoor public places.	09 March 2022
	Mask mandate lifted in indoor public places (including public and private schools). Exceptions: public transport and health care facilities.	17 March 2022