Emotion Recognition in Looked After Children in Wales: An Investigation and Intervention Study
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: Sch of Psychology
Abstract
In Wales, 109 per 10,000 children are 'looked after' because their birth family are unable to care for them. Most will have experienced abuse or neglect in the birth family environment, placing them at greater risk for developing mental health problems that can endure into later life (Wales Centre for Public Policy, 2021).
Understanding the processes that might underpin a child's mental health problems can provide avenues for intervention to offset risk trajectories before disorder may emerge (DeJong, 2010). Emotion recognition is fundamental to social relationships, and impairment in emotion recognition is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders (Burley et al., 2021). Children adopted from public care show impairments in emotion recognition that are linked to their mental health problems (Paine et al., 2021). With their likelihood of experiencing early life adversity and instability, looked after children represent a vulnerable group. The overarching questions that will be asked in this studentship are:
Research Questions
1) Do looked after children show impairments in emotion recognition?
2) Does emotion recognition training improve looked after children's emotion recognition?
3) Can we detect improvements in children's mental health and social communication 6 months after training?
Method
As an overview, this research will involve new school-based data collection of ~N=50 looked after children (aged 5-8) in South Wales. Families will be recruited via CUCHDS databases of local schools; Estyn reports will be used to approach schools with a higher proportion of pupils from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and who experience disadvantage. At baseline, children will complete an emotion recognition test and their naturalistic behaviour during play will be coded for social communication skills (e.g., prosocial behaviour). Teachers and caregivers will complete questionnaires regarding children's mental health and background. Caregivers will complete a Five Minute Speech Sample to assess the emotional climate of the caregiver-child relationship. Children without an emotion recognition impairment will be the control group, and those with impairment will be given the Cardiff Emotion Recognition Training (CERT; https://emotionrecognition.cardiff.ac.uk/info/videos/) by school staff. In other high-risk samples of children the CERT has been shown to improve emotion recognition and reduce mental health problems (Wells et al., 2020). Child assessments will be repeated 6 months post-intervention to assess positive effects of the intervention on child behaviour.
Understanding the processes that might underpin a child's mental health problems can provide avenues for intervention to offset risk trajectories before disorder may emerge (DeJong, 2010). Emotion recognition is fundamental to social relationships, and impairment in emotion recognition is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders (Burley et al., 2021). Children adopted from public care show impairments in emotion recognition that are linked to their mental health problems (Paine et al., 2021). With their likelihood of experiencing early life adversity and instability, looked after children represent a vulnerable group. The overarching questions that will be asked in this studentship are:
Research Questions
1) Do looked after children show impairments in emotion recognition?
2) Does emotion recognition training improve looked after children's emotion recognition?
3) Can we detect improvements in children's mental health and social communication 6 months after training?
Method
As an overview, this research will involve new school-based data collection of ~N=50 looked after children (aged 5-8) in South Wales. Families will be recruited via CUCHDS databases of local schools; Estyn reports will be used to approach schools with a higher proportion of pupils from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and who experience disadvantage. At baseline, children will complete an emotion recognition test and their naturalistic behaviour during play will be coded for social communication skills (e.g., prosocial behaviour). Teachers and caregivers will complete questionnaires regarding children's mental health and background. Caregivers will complete a Five Minute Speech Sample to assess the emotional climate of the caregiver-child relationship. Children without an emotion recognition impairment will be the control group, and those with impairment will be given the Cardiff Emotion Recognition Training (CERT; https://emotionrecognition.cardiff.ac.uk/info/videos/) by school staff. In other high-risk samples of children the CERT has been shown to improve emotion recognition and reduce mental health problems (Wells et al., 2020). Child assessments will be repeated 6 months post-intervention to assess positive effects of the intervention on child behaviour.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Amy Paine (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Lydia Tian (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P00069X/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 2738184 | Studentship | ES/P00069X/1 | 26/09/2022 | 30/09/2026 | Lydia Tian |