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Decoding Basic and Non-basic Facial Expressions and Depressive Symptoms in Late Childhood and Adolescence

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Abstract

This study examined the relationship between decoding nonverbal cues and depressive symptoms in a general school population of 606 children and adolescents (9–15 years). The focus was on the perceived intensity of several emotions in both basic and non-basic facial expressions. The perceived intensities of anger and joy in low intensity facial expressions were related to depression. The higher the perceived intensity of anger the more depressed adolescents were, whereas the reversed effect was found for the perception of joy, but only in girls. These results suggest that the development of decoding biases in low intensity facial expressions may be useful for understanding the development of individual and gender differences in depression during adolescence.

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Notes

  1. We also tested whether there were any decoding behavior by academic level interactions, but no significant interactions were found.

  2. In preliminary analyses we also examined whether there was an age by gender interaction on depression. This interaction was not significant but we did find the expected reversed gender differences for our oldest and youngest participants. Specifically, at age 9 (N = 58) boys had higher depression scores (M = 8.9, SD = 4.2) than girls (M = 6.9, SD = 5.5), whereas the reverse was true at age 15 (N = 49, M = 7.2, SD = 4.0 for boys and M = 9.4, SD = 5.4 for girls). The larger sample (N = 4,008, ages 8–17) from which these participants were drawn did show a significant Age × Gender interaction of depression (more detailed information is available from the first author). Thus, the significant negative relation for age and depression found when all 3 steps were entered into the model is probably being driven by lower levels of depression found in older boys.

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  1. Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Yolanda van Beek & Judith Semon Dubas

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  1. Yolanda van Beek
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Correspondence to Yolanda van Beek.

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van Beek, Y., Dubas, J.S. Decoding Basic and Non-basic Facial Expressions and Depressive Symptoms in Late Childhood and Adolescence. J Nonverbal Behav 32, 53–64 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-007-0041-7

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