Children's emotion recognition and aggression: A multi-cohort longitudinal study

Neuropsychological mechanisms of social difficulties in disruptive mood dysregulation disorder versus oppositional defiant disorder

Children with Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) or Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) are characterized by irritability and social difficulties. However, the mechanisms underlying these disorders could be different. This study explores differences in social cognition and executive function (EF) across DMDD and ODD and the influence of these factors and their interaction on social problems in both groups. Children with DMDD (n = 53, Mage = 9.3) or ODD (n = 39, Mage = 9.6) completed neuropsychological tasks measuring social cognition (Theory of Mind and Face-Emotion Recognition) and EF (cognitive flexibility, inhibition, and working memory). Parents reported social problems. More than one-third of the children with DMDD and almost two-thirds of those with ODD showed clear difficulties with Theory of Mind. Most children with DMDD (51-64%) or ODD (67-83%) showed difficulties with EF. In children with DMDD, worse EF (β = -.36) was associated with more social problems, whereas in children with ODD, better EF (β = .44) was associated with more social problems. In those with ODD, but not in those with DMDD, the interaction between social cognition and EF contributed to the explained variance of social problems (β = -1.97). Based on the observed interaction pattern, enhanced EF may lead to increased social problems among children with ODD who also exhibit social cognition difficulties. This study suggests the existence of distinct neuropsychological mechanisms underlying the social issues observed in children with DMDD versus those with ODD.

Polygenic risk and hostile environments: Links to stable and dynamic antisocial behaviors across adolescence

Adverse environments are linked to elevated youth antisocial behavior. However, this relation is thought to depend, in part, on genetic susceptibility. The present study investigated whether polygenic risk for antisociality moderates relations between hostile environments and stable as well as dynamic antisocial behaviors across adolescence. We derived two antisocial-linked polygenic risk scores (PRS) (N = 721) based on previous genome-wide association studies. Forms of antisocial behavior (nonaggressive conduct problems, physical aggression, social aggression) and environmental hostility (harsh parenting and school violence) were assessed at age 13, 15, and 17 years. Relations to individual differences stable across adolescence (latent stability) vs. time-specific states (timepoint residual variance) of antisocial behavior were assessed via structural equation models. Higher antisocial PRS, harsh parenting, and school violence were linked to stable elevations in antisocial behaviors across adolescence. We identified a consistent polygenic-environment interaction suggestive of differential susceptibility in late adolescence. At age 17, harsher parenting was linked to higher social aggression in those with higher antisocial PRS, and lower social aggression in those with lower antisocial PRS. This suggests that genetics and environmental hostility relate to stable youth antisocial behaviors, and that genetic susceptibility moderates home environment-antisocial associations specifically in late adolescence.

Multidimensional profiles of Head Start children's social behaviors predict their interpretations of physical aggression

Preschool children's reasoning regarding moral events differs according to adversity and relates to aggression. Understanding morality in young children is paramount for understanding their aggressive behaviors. The study aims to identify patterns of aggression and prosocial behavior using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and investigate how patterns of aggression and prosocial behavior relate to reasoning about prototypic moral events. One hundred six children (Mage  = 4.40 years old, SD = 0.55 years old, Range: 3.08-5.33 years old, 51% boys) enrolled in Head Start programs and their caregivers participated. In the fall caregivers completed surveys on forms (i.e., the manifestation of behavior) and functions of aggression (i.e., motivation of behavior), and prosocial behavior. The following spring children completed two moral reasoning tasks that measured children's judgment and reasoning of harm, and their attributions of transgressors' reasoning. The LCA revealed a 3-class solution: (1) high levels of relational aggression and moderate levels of prosocial behavior (bistrategic controllers), (2) low levels of both aggression and average prosocial behavior (uninvolved), (3) high levels of all types of aggression and low levels of prosocial behavior (high aggression). Subsequent analyses suggest that uninvolved children prioritize adhering to authority over other concerns, and bistrategic controllers focused on goal-oriented reasoning. Overall, our findings support that recognizing patterns of behavior may be useful in understanding children's moral reasoning.

Childhood Trauma and Malevolent Creativity in Chinese College Students: Moderated Mediation by Psychological Resilience and Aggression

Although a previous study has shown that childhood trauma influences malevolent creativity, aggression and psychological resilience have been linked with childhood trauma and creativity. However, little is known about the complex correlations among these factors in Chinese college students. The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of aggression and the moderating role of psychological resilience between childhood trauma and malevolent creativity. A total of 389 undergraduates were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The moderated mediation model was conducted to explore whether aggression mediated the correlation between childhood trauma and malevolent creativity and whether psychological resilience moderated the indirect role of childhood trauma. The results showed that childhood trauma positively correlated with aggression and malevolent creativity and was negatively associated with psychological resilience. Aggression partly mediated the association of childhood trauma with malevolent creativity. Resilience moderated the indirect effect of the mediation model, such that the indirect effect of childhood trauma on malevolent creativity through aggression increased as the level of resilience increased. The study indicated that childhood trauma exposure is associated with malevolent creativity behavior, and aggression mediated this association. The level of psychological resilience differentiates the indirect paths of childhood trauma on malevolent creativity. These results have important implications for preventing and containing expressions of malevolent creativity.

Law Enforcement Officers’ Ability to Recognize Emotions: The Role of Personality Traits and Basic Needs’ Satisfaction

Background: This study intended to explore the role of personality traits and basic psychological needs in law enforcement officers’ ability to recognize emotions: anger, joy, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, and neutral. It was significant to analyze law enforcement officers’ emotion recognition and the contributing factors, as this field has been under-researched despite increased excessive force use by officers in many countries. Methods: This study applied the Big Five–2 (BFI-2), the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS), and the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces set of stimuli (KDEF). The data was gathered using an online questionnaire provided directly to law enforcement agencies. A total of 154 law enforcement officers participated in the study, 50.65% were females, and 49.35% were males. The mean age was 41.2 (age range = 22–61). In order to analyze the data, SEM and multiple linear regression methods were used. Results: This study analyzed variables of motion recognition, personality traits, and needs satisfaction and confirmed that law enforcement officers’ personality traits play a significant role in emotion recognition. Respondents’ agreeableness significantly predicted increased overall emotion recognition; conscientiousness predicted increased anger recognition; joy recognition was significantly predicted by extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness. This study also confirmed that law enforcement officers’ basic psychological needs satisfaction/frustration play a significant role in emotion recognition. Respondents’ relatedness satisfaction significantly predicted increased overall emotion recognition, fear recognition, joy recognition, and sadness recognition. Relatedness frustration significantly predicted decreased anger recognition, surprise recognition, and neutral face recognition. Furthermore, this study confirmed links between law enforcement officers’ personality traits, satisfaction/frustration of basic psychological needs, and emotion recognition, χ2 = 57.924; df = 41; p = 0.042; TLI = 0.929; CFI = 0.956; RMSEA = 0.042 [0.009–0.065]. Discussion: The findings suggested that agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism play an essential role in satisfaction and frustration of relatedness needs, which, subsequently, link to emotion recognition. Due to the relatively small sample size, the issues of validity/reliability of some instruments, and other limitations, the results of this study should preferably be regarded with concern.

A defensive mindset: A pattern of social information processing that develops early and predicts life course outcomes

The hypothesis was tested that some children develop a defensive mindset that subsumes individual social information processing (SIP) steps, grows from early experiences, and guides long-term outcomes. In Study 1 (Fast Track [FT]), 463 age-5 children (45% girls; 43% Black) were first assessed in 1991 and followed through age 32 (83% retention). In Study 2 (Child Development Project [CDP]), 585 age-5 children (48% girls, 17% Black) were first assessed in 1987 and followed through age 34 (78% retention). In both studies, measures were collected of early adverse experiences, defensive mindset and SIP, and adult outcomes. Across both studies, a robust latent construct of school-age defensive mindset was validated empirically (comparative fit index = .99 in each study) and found to mediate the impact of early child abuse (38% in FT and 29% in CDP of total effect) and peer social rejection (14% in FT and 7% in CDP of total effect) on adult incarceration.

Correlations Between Psychological Status and Perception of Facial Expression

OBJECTIVE

Facial affect recognition is associated with neuropsychological status and psychiatric diseases. We hypothesized that facial affect recognition is associated with psychological status and perception of other affects.

METHODS

A total of 80 images depicting facial affect, including 20 Neutral, 20 Angry, 20 Fear, and 20 Sad, were screened for use in our research. A total of 100 healthy individuals were asked to rate these images using a 10-point Likert scale and complete psychological scales assessing the emotional statuses and cognitive functions.

RESULTS

The participants' emotional state of aggression, attention, and impulsivity may have been associated with their interpretation of the Angry facial expressions. The participants often rated the Angry facial expressions as Fear. The participants rated Fear images as Angry or Sad. In response to a Sad facial expression, the participants reported psychological statuses of attention and impulsivity which were associated with the facial expression rating. The participants rated the Sad expression as Angry or Fear.

CONCLUSION

The psychological statuses of the participants were significantly correlated with their interpretation of facial affects. In particular, a psychological state of attention was often correlated with incorrect affect ratings. Attention and impulsivity could affect the rating of the sad facial expressions.

The Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge for 3-to 9-Year-Olds: Psychometric Properties and Validity

Children with an advanced knowledge of emotions are generally more socially competent, less likely to suffer from psychopathology, and more likely to succeed in school, both socially and academically. The assessment of children's emotion knowledge has thus gained importance in recent decades - both in psychiatric practice and in developmental and educational psychology. However, there is still a lack of appropriate instruments for assessing children's emotion knowledge in a performance test reliably, and for a broad age range. The Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge (ATEM 3-9) is a newly developed measure which encompasses seven components of emotion knowledge in 3-9-year-olds. The ATEM 3-9 is an adaptive test which uses skip and dropout rules to adjust for children's varying levels of knowledge. In addition to German, the ATEM has been translated into English and Hebrew. The German norming sample of the ATEM 3-9 comprises N = 882 (54% female, 21% bilingual) children between the ages of 3 and 9 years, who were divided into seven age groups. Test items, which are ordered according to the item response theory, showed a good fit to a seven-dimensional model reflecting the seven components. The internal consistencies of the dimensions are acceptable to good. Construct validity was examined by means of correlations with other measures of emotion knowledge, as well as measures on language skills and executive functions in a subsample. This resulted in medium size correlations in the expected directions. In addition, children with externalizing and internalizing disorders who were recruited in psychiatric in- and outpatient clinics showed deficits in various components of emotion knowledge when compared to their agemates in the norming sample. Overall, the ATEM 3-9 is well suited to measure individual components of emotion knowledge in children and to obtain a differentiated picture of the various aspects of emotion knowledge. The ATEM 3-9 thus supports the investigation of the development of social-emotional competencies in normative development (e.g., school readiness) and in social-emotional-learning interventions. Furthermore, it is suitable as an instrument for the differentiated assessment of (progress of) children's emotion knowledge in clinical child psychology and psychiatry.

Bacterial Translocation Associates With Aggression in Schizophrenia Inpatients

Objective: Accumulating evidence indicates that inflammation abnormalities may contribute to aggression behaviors in psychotic patients, however, the possible sources of inflammation remain elusive. We aimed to evaluate the associations among aggression, inflammation, and bacterial translocation (BT) in aggression-affected schizophrenia (ScZ) inpatients with 2 weeks of antipsychotics discontinuation.

Methods: Serum specimens collected from 112 aggression and 112 non-aggression individuals with ScZ and 56 healthy adults were used for quantifications of inflammation- or BT-related biomarkers. Aggression severity was assessed by Modified Overt Aggression Scale (MOAS).

Results: Proinflammation phenotype dominated and leaky gut-induced BT occurred only in cases with ScZ with a history of aggression, and the MOAS score positively related to levels of C-reactive protein, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor-α. Furthermore, serum levels of BT-derived lipopolysaccharide (LPS), as well as LPS-responded soluble CD14, were not only positively correlated with levels of above proinflammation mediators but also the total MOAS score and subscore for aggression against objects or others.

Conclusion: Our results collectively demonstrate the presence of leaky gut and further correlate BT-derived LPS and soluble CD14 to onset or severity of aggression possibly by driving proinflammation response in inpatients with ScZ, which indicates that BT may be a novel anti-inflammation therapeutic target for aggression prophylaxis.