Children Facial Expression Production: Influence of Age, Gender, Emotion Subtype, Elicitation Condition and Culture

Abstract

The production of facial expressions (FEs) is an important skill that allows children to share and adapt emotions with their relatives and peers during social interactions. These skills are impaired in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. However, the way in which typical children develop and master their production of FEs has still not been clearly assessed. This study aimed to explore factors that could influence the production of FEs in childhood such as age, gender, emotion subtype (sadness, anger, joy, and neutral), elicitation task (on request, imitation), area of recruitment (French Riviera and Parisian) and emotion multimodality. A total of one hundred fifty-seven children aged 6–11 years were enrolled in Nice and Paris, France. We asked them to produce FEs in two different tasks: imitation with an avatar model and production on request without a model. Results from a multivariate analysis revealed that: (1) children performed better with age. (2) Positive emotions were easier to produce than negative emotions. (3) Children produced better FE on request (as opposed to imitation); and (4) Riviera children performed better than Parisian children suggesting regional influences on emotion production. We conclude that facial emotion production is a complex developmental process influenced by several factors that needs to be acknowledged in future research.

Children with autism spectrum disorder produce more ambiguous and less socially meaningful facial expressions: an experimental study using random forest classifiers

“…cross-cultural studies indicate that the intensity of spontaneous expression is not universal and may vary across cultures) [10,11]. Similarly, in a previous study [6], we found that children from the south of France (Nice) were more expressive than children from the north (Paris).…”

“…The protocol is available in detail in Grossard et al [6]. It consists of two tasks of FE production, one entailing a verbal request without a model (the on request task) and one entailing the imitation of an avatar (the imitation task).…”

“…Second, facial motricity is not similar between infants and adults [4]. Fully adult-like FE physiognomies appear progressively, and the learning of FEs increases even in late childhood: the ability to produce FE continuously improves between 5 and 13 years of age and 13-year-old adolescents do not yet produce all FEs perfectly [5,6]. Their production is influenced by several factors: (1) emotional valence (e.g.…”

“…positive emotions are easier to produce than negative emotions) [6][7][8]; (2) gender, as girls tend to produce positive emotions more easily than boys, and boys tend to produce anger more easily than girls [9]; (3) the type of task, as this factor modulates the quality of FEs in children (e.g. children are better with request tasks than with imitation tasks) [6]; and (4) ethnic and cultural factors (e.g. cross-cultural studies indicate that the intensity of spontaneous expression is not universal and may vary across cultures) [10,11].…”

“…(1) Investigating FE production in children with ASD who are 6 to 12 years old, comparing their production to that of TD children, taking into account different factors that could influence FEs [6]. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that FE quality would increase with age and with IQ, that positive emotions would be easier to produce than negative emotions, that the type of task would influence the children's production, that the FEs of children from Nice would be rated with more accuracy than the FEs of children from Paris, that gender would influence the children's productions, that TD children would produce more accurate FEs than children with ASD and that children with ASD would be helped by the presence of a model.…”