Comparison of sadness, anger and fear expressions when preschool children look at their mothers  

Research has shown that the ability of children to regulate and change their emotion expression improves with age. The purpose of this study is to show that toddlers show more grief than other emotions when they look at their mothers, and that this communicates that they need support.    

Emotion regulation and the function of expression of emotions

Younger children rely on their mother to help them with their own emotion regulation. Children look to their mother for help and adjust their behavior based on the reaction of the mother. A change in a child's facial expression reflects emotion regulation. An important aspect of the functionalist approach is that facial expressions help with relational goals. Expressions of stress serve for communication, attachment and provoking help with the caregiver. The differential emotion theory states that each emotion of stress has a separate social function and elicits specific responses from a social partner. Especially important for this study is that the expression of sadness provokes the most positive, supportive responses.      

Socialization and the development of emotion regulation

Very small children cannot intentionally change their facial expressions. Toddlers can show positive facial expressions when they get a prize that they are not happy with. However, they cannot express this reaction yet, so they do not yet understand that they are doing this. Children between 3 and 18 months do not express pain when they are in pain, but sadness. This is because it is more functional for the child, because it leads to  more support from the caregiver. Children learn to modulate their expression through interactions with their mother, who encourages certain expressions, and ignores other responses or negates them.        

Current study

The purpose of this study is to look at whether 24-year-old preschool children modulate their facial expressions with their mothers. The pattern of facial expressions is also examined in response to frustrating or threatening experiences. Four questions are considered: 1) What was the dominant stress expression in each episode? 2) Do they show sadness more often than the target emotion when they look at their mother? 3) Does the expression of sadness increase in intensity and frequency when they look at their mother? 4) Is the expression of sadness more common when they look at their mother than when they do not look at their mother?      

Method

71 children of 24 years old participated. Periods of stress were always separated by a neutral or positive episode. In the 'strange situation' (threatening episode) a male stranger entered the room and stood a few meters away from the child. He then knelt before the child and looked up without talking. The child could escape in one context, but not in the other. Second, there was a frustration episode.   

Results

The expression of sadness was compared to the expression of the target emotion (fear or anger). This happened both for the entire episode and only for the glances at the mother. ANOVAs and MANOVAs were used for the analyzes. The two 'stranger' episodes were meant to provoke a reaction of fear, and the two episodes with the toys (frustration) were meant to provoke anger. In the episode with the stranger, the expression of fear was about twice as many compared to the expression of sadness. However, when they were allowed to play freely when the stranger came in, the expression of sadness was twice as common as the expression of fear. When removing toys, anger was three times more common compared to sadness. When the toy was locked in a box, the expression of sadness was more common than anger. Expressions of sadness while watching their mother were more common in the condition when the stranger came in and they sat in a high chair and did not play freely , and in the condition in which toys were removed. The intensity of the expression of sadness increases while looking at the mother, and continues to increase afterwards. Finally, the expression of sadness when looking at the mother is compared to sadness when not looking at the mother. For the 'Stranger Highchair' condition, sadness was more common when looking at the mother than when not looking. The same applies to the 'Toy Removal' condition.           

Discussion

This study shows that preschool children express more sadness than fear or anger when they look at their mother. These expressions of sadness are also more intense than those of fear or anger. These results were most evident for the Stranger Highchair and Toy Removal condition. Moreover, the intensity and frequency of the sadness during and after the gaze to the mother, increased. These results cannot be explained by the fact that sadness occurs more often than anger and anxiety, because during the entire episode, anxiety and anger were more common in the Stranger Highchair and Toy Removal condition. Moreover, this pattern of sadness when looking at the mother was not present in the other two conditions, probably because sadness in these two conditions already occurred throughout the episode. Finally, the results show that sadness is more common when looking at the mother than when not looking at the mother. Now the question is why this is the case. A first explanation stems from the functionalistic theory, which states that sadness provokes social support and interaction. However, there is no evidence that anxiety responses are less adaptive than sadness in getting help. The fact that the children did not show any sadness before they looked at the mother indicates that they did not feel sad. Finally, it is not yet clear which mechanism plays a role in the functionalist explanation, but that is probably that of display rules. Display rules are culture-specific predictions about who can show which emotion to whom and when. This study indicates that even young children modulate their facial expressions. This is in contrast to earlier research, which suggested that cognitive development and awareness of emotions are needed for this.