TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Childhood maltreatment moderates the relationship between emotion recognition and maternal sensitive behaviors
JO  - Child abuse and neglect
A1  - Bérubé, Annie
A1  - Blais, Caroline
A1  - Fournier, Amélie
A1  - Turgeon, Jessica
A1  - Forget, Hélène
A1  - Coutu, Sylvain
A1  - Dubeau, Diane
SP  - e104432
EP  - e104432
VL  - 102
IS  - 
N2  - BACKGROUND: Sensitivity is defined as parents ability to perceive, react and respond to children signals. Having a history of childhood maltreatment changes the way adults perceive visual emotions. These perceptual characteristics could have important consequences on how these parents respond to their children. <br><br>OBJECTIVE: The current study examines how a history of childhood maltreatment moderates the relationship between maternal emotion recognition in child faces and sensitive behaviors toward their child during free-play and a structured task. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants included 58 mothers and their children aged between 2 and 5 years. <br><br>METHODS: Mothers were exposed to a set of photographs of child faces showing morphed images of the six basic emotional expressions. Mother-child interactions were then coded for sensitive behaviors. Mothers' history of childhood maltreatment was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. <br><br>RESULTS: Maltreatment severity was related to poorer abilities in emotion recognition. However, the association between emotion recognition and sensitive behavior was moderate by history of childhood maltreatment. For mothers exposed to a severe form of childhood maltreatment, a better emotion recognition was related to less sensitive behaviors toward the child, both during free-play and the structured task. <br><br>CONCLUSION: This relationship is unique to these mothers and is inconsistent with Ainsworth's definition of sensitivity. These results have important implications as they suggest mothers with a history of severe maltreatment would need tailored interventions which take into account their particular reactions to children's emotions.<br><br>Crown Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0145-2134
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104432
ID  - ref1
ER  -