Impact of child maltreatment in the recognition of faces and emotions

• Grant number: 16/18945-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2017
• End date: January 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Scivoletto
• Grantee: Guilherme Rodrigues Marta
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment constitutes a serious worldwide public health problem, affecting a child every ten minutes in Brazil. Victims of abuse are often socially excluded and have behavioral disorders that in the long term perpetuate the violence and exclusion cycle. The correct recognition of faces and emotions is an essential skill so that children and adolescents can be effectively inserted in society. Victimized children may associate traumatic experiences with facial expressions, changing the proper recognition of emotions. The objective of this project is to study the association between maltreatment and changes in emotion recognition process. Forty-nine adolescents underwent psychiatric assessment by Kiddie-Sads-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) and sociodemographic interview. Maltreatment occurrence was assessed by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Subsequently, they underwent Emotions Recognition Test in Human Faces, which was used only once in Brazil. The associations between type and intensity of maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect) with the response time and recognition accuracy of positive and negative emotions will be analyzed. The influence of psychiatric disorders and gender in these associations will also be examined. To understand the impact of maltreatment in child and adolescent development, especially in the process of emotional recognition, is critical to the development of more effective interventions for reintegration of victimized adolescents. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MARTA, GUILHERME RODRIGUES; DORETTO, VICTORIA FOGACA; SCIVOLETTO, SANDRA. Maltreatment and Emotion Recognition Among Brazilian Adolescents. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY, v. 9, NOV 26 2018. (16/18945-0)