Kirkham, E.J. and Levita, L. orcid.org/0000-0001-6002-6817 (2020) Early life stress is associated with reduced avoidance of threatening facial expressions. Development and Psychopathology, 32 (3). pp. 1059-1067. ISSN 0954-5794
Abstract
Early neglect or maltreatment has been associated with changes in children's processing of emotional facial expressions, including a hypersensitivity to the emotion of anger. This may facilitate the avoidance of danger in a maltreating environment. However, few studies have examined whether experiences of early life stress (ELS) are associated with atypical avoidance responses towards emotional facial expressions, or whether the effects of ELS can be observed in adult participants. The present study therefore examined the effects of ELS on adults’ approach-avoidance tendencies towards angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions. Surprisingly, higher levels of ELS were associated with reduced avoidance of angry facial expressions among individuals with no evidence of mental illness. In contrast, there was no evidence of a relationship between ELS and avoidance of angry facial expressions among individuals with experience of mental illness. These novel findings suggest that ELS-related changes in social cognition can be observed years after the ELS itself occurred.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Cambridge University Press. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Development and Psychopathology. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | anger; approach; avoidance; early life stress; emotional facial expressions |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 21 Aug 2019 09:32 |
Last Modified: | 10 Dec 2021 10:14 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/s095457941900110x |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:149941 |
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Filename: ELS_faces_paper_June_2019_submission.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0