Do You See What I See? Emotion Recognition Competencies in Sexually Abused School-Aged Children and Non-Abused Children

ABSTRACT

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a worldwide phenomenon that has been linked to deleterious consequences. Adverse life events, such as sexual abuse, can compromise the development of emotional competencies, an important dimension of children’s psychosocial development. This study aimed at evaluating emotion recognition competencies in sexually abused and non-abused children. The sample consisted of 97 sexually abused children (65 girls) and 78 non-abused children (56 girls) aged between 6 and 12 years. They were recruited in specialized intervention centers and elementary schools from the Montreal area. Recognition of joy, anger, fear, sadness, and neutral expressions was assessed using the Developmental Emotional Faces Stimulus Set (DEFSS; Meuwissen et al., 2017). Results of an ANCOVA revealed that the total scores of emotion recognition were significantly lower for victims of SA (M = 18.12, SE = 0.33) relative to non-abused children (M = 19.36, SE = 0.37), F(1,170) = 5.70, p < .05. Analyses performed on specific expressions yielded lower scores for the recognition of anger, F(1, 170) = 6.12, p = .014, partial η² = .03, and joy, F(1, 170) = 8.04, p =.005, partial η2 = .04. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing emotion recognition competencies to improve intervention programs provided to sexually abused children and prevent the development of severe psychosocial problems.

KEYWORDS:

• emotion development
• child sexual abuse
• emotion recognition
• school-aged children

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all the families and children who participated in this study. Special thanks also to Manon Robichaud for the management of the database and Hugues Leduc for his guidance in the statistical analysis.

Disclosure statement

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

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant (#353537) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research awarded to Martine Hébert, Ph.D.

Notes on contributors

Justine Caouette

Justine Caouette, B.Sc., is a Ph.D. candidate at Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research and clinical interests focus on the emotional development of children victims of trauma. She has been working in the field of sexual abuse for five years now.

Louise Cossette

Louise Cossette, Ph.D, is a developmental psychologist and professor in the Department of Psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal. She has conducted research on the development of emotions and emotion regulation in children and on the psychosocial development of international adoptees. She also has strong expertise in gender development and various issues related to gender.

Martine Hébert

Martine Hébert, Ph.D., is a full professor at the department of Sexology at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She holds the Tier I Canada Research Chair in Interpersonal Traumas and Resilience. She is also co-holder of the Chaire interuniversitaire Marie-Vincent sur les agressions sexuelles envers les enfants and leads the FRQ-SC sexual violence and health team (EVISSA). Her main research interests relate to child sexual abuse and adolescent dating violence.