Scientists talked about the connection of mothers' facial expressions with children's emotional problems

The discrepancy between the mother's words about the child and her facial expression is associated with more pronounced emotional and behavioral difficulties in children. This is the conclusion reached by psychologists at Cardiff University, who studied 134 families. How children learn to understand the emotions of adults and why new data should not become a reason for accusations against parents — in the Izvestia article.

The child hears the words and sees the face

The adult says that everything is fine, but frowns and purses his lips. Or he talks about something unpleasant with an almost motionless face. To understand such a message, it is not enough to know the meaning of the words: you have to take into account the facial expression, intonation and circumstances of the conversation.

To explain the topic, you can imagine a domestic situation: a mother says to a child, "I'm not angry," although she looks annoyed. This is a conditional example of a contradictory message, not an episode from a study. In the work itself, the scientists studied another combination: negative words about a child with a weak expression of facial expressions characteristic of anger.

The researchers were interested in how different components of the emotional situation in the family are related to the condition of the children. They looked together at the symptoms of anxiety and depression in mothers, the content of their stories about the child, and the movements of facial muscles during these stories.

This approach helps to see what remains beyond the literal meaning of the phrase. You can estimate how many warm or critical words a person utters. But this still does not give a complete picture of how he expresses his attitude.

What the five-minute story showed

The study involved 134 children aged four to eight years and their mothers. The average age of the children was about six and a half years. Almost 69% of the participants were boys.

It was a group in which difficulties had already manifested themselves. The teachers referred the children for examination because of emotional, behavioral, or cognitive problems at school. Therefore, the results describe families who may have already needed help, and do not provide grounds to judge all parents and children.

The mothers filled out questionnaires about their own symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as about the child's behavior and emotional state. In addition, each participant was asked to talk freely about her son or daughter for five minutes.

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The researchers assessed the content and tone of the story: how warmly the woman spoke about the child, how many positive and negative comments she uttered, and how negative her attitude was in general. The videos were separately analyzed by the AFFDEX program, which tracks the movements of facial muscles.

She recorded, for example, the furrowing of the eyebrows, the narrowing of the eyes and movements in the nose area. The researchers used certain combinations of such movements as indicators of the facial expression of anger. We are talking about the analysis of visible facial movements: the program could not determine exactly what the woman was feeling at that moment.

A crucial detail: during the story, the child was in another room and was undergoing an examination. Scientists did not observe how he reacts to his mother's words, and did not record everyday family conversations. They compared the features of maternal speech and facial expressions with assessments of children's difficulties.

Some experiences are immediately noticeable, others remain inside.

The researchers divided children's difficulties into two large groups. In scientific papers, they are called internalized and externalized problems. In everyday life, the difference is clearer: the child mainly directs some experiences towards himself, while others manifest themselves in behavior.

The first group includes anxiety, depressed mood, and withdrawal. The child may worry a lot, avoid communication or look sad. The second category includes aggressive behavior, marked disobedience, and other difficulties that are noticeable to others. These groups may overlap: one child is capable of being both anxious and defiant at the same time.

In the initial statistical models, anxiety symptoms in mothers were primarily associated with more pronounced inner feelings in children, while depression symptoms were associated with behavioral difficulties. At the same time, at the level of simple comparisons, both groups of maternal symptoms were associated with both types of childhood problems.

Therefore, the results cannot be turned into a pattern of "anxious mother — anxious child" or "mother's depression — child's aggression." Scientists have discovered statistical patterns within a specific group of families. They did not get a way to predict the behavior of an individual child based on his mother's condition.

A more negative and less warm attitude in the stories about the child was also associated with the severity of his difficulties. The association with problematic behavior was particularly noticeable.

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Why scientists are interested in a calm face with negative words

The most unusual result concerned a combination of speech and facial expressions. More serious difficulties were noted in the children of those mothers who, while speaking negatively about the child, showed fewer and weaker facial signs of anger.

This observation is easily misunderstood. It does not mean that parents should frown more, get angry more often, or deliberately show irritation. The study did not check at all whether children's condition would improve if adults changed their facial expressions.

The authors offer another explanation: consistency of emotional signals may be important. When a person expresses dissatisfaction, others expect to see a certain facial expression. If words and a face convey different messages, it may be more difficult to understand the other person's condition.

According to the researchers, this is especially important for a child: communication with loved ones helps him learn to recognize feelings and choose his own reaction. Learning to regulate emotions means, in particular, noticing your irritation, understanding its cause and gradually finding ways to express it without aggression.

But in this work, the scientists did not establish that the children really misunderstood their mother's facial expressions. This explanation is still a hypothesis that needs to be tested in direct communication studies.

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There is also a statistical subtlety. Adding facial expressions to the model significantly improved the explanation of differences in children's emotional difficulties. For behavioral problems, the contribution of all facial indicators together did not reach statistical significance, although a separate indicator of anger during negative statements was associated with their severity. Therefore, the strength of the evidence in the two directions is not the same.

Who influences whom

The study provides a picture of a certain period of a family's life, but does not show the sequence of events. Based on its results, it is impossible to determine whether the features of the mother's emotional communication or the child's difficulties first appeared.

Feedback is also possible. If a child is very anxious, often in conflict, or reacts sharply to comments, an adult may get used to restraining his facial expression, trying not to increase the tension. The authors explicitly discuss this possibility. Then a weak facial expression during an unpleasant conversation may partly reflect the existing family situation. It is not necessarily its original cause.

This changes the meaning of the results for parents. It is impossible to determine what is happening to a child's mental health by one calm face, irritated look or an unsuccessful phrase. The study does not provide such a diagnostic opportunity, nor a threshold after which the mismatch of words and facial expressions becomes dangerous.

Long-term observations will be required to verify causal relationships. It is important to monitor how parents' conditions, communication methods, and children's difficulties are changing, as well as to check whether support programs are having the expected effect.