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Emotion-related abilities and depressive symptoms in Latina mothers and their children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2004

WILLIAM F. ARSENIO ,
MARIA SESIN  and
LAWRENCE SIEGEL
WILLIAM F. ARSENIO
Affiliation:
Ferkhauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University
MARIA SESIN
Affiliation:
Ferkhauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University
LAWRENCE SIEGEL
Affiliation:
Ferkhauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University
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Abstract

This study examined the abilities of 40 Latina mothers and their 6- to 11-year-old children (20 girls, 20 boys) to recognize and produce emotion expressions and how these abilities differed as a function of maternal depressive symptoms. The results indicated that depressively symptomatic mothers were less accurate at recognizing basic emotions (e.g., happy, sad, etc.) and some mixed emotions (e.g., scared/ok combinations) than nonsymptomatic mothers, but there were no group differences for emotion production. In contrast, children of symptomatic mothers posed fewer recognizable sad expressions than their peers. Error pattern analyses also revealed that children of symptomatic mothers were more likely to mistakenly recognize happiness and to avoid posing sadness (across all basic emotions). Children's ability to pose emotions was related to their mothers' emotion production, and this was not moderated by maternal depressive symptoms. The discussion focuses on the possible interpersonal consequences of these biases and deficits in the emotion-related abilities of symptomatic mothers and their children and on the need to conduct research on the familial and cultural processes that might underlie these findings.Portions of this article are based on a dissertation by Maria Sesin submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University. We would like to thank the mothers and children who made this research possible, as well as Marjorie Melendez and Craig Indellicati for their help in preparing the emotion recognition stimuli.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 95 - 112
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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