Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Emotion Recognition

Publication Date

2025

College

College of Sciences & Mathematics

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

SURS Faculty Advisor

Dr. Michael Oliver

Presentation Type

Metadata Only

Abstract

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are a known risk factor for increased mental health challenges in adulthood. Childhood experiences, even mild trauma, can shape brain development and influence emotional and cognitive processing, including emotion recognition. The present study investigated the relationship between ACEs and emotion recognition, hypothesizing that individuals with higher ACE scores would be more likely to select negative emotions when viewing chimeric faces. Fifty-seven students (Mage = 19.35) were recruited through the SONA research participation system. Participants completed an online survey assessing demographic information, ACE scores, and a chimeric face task designed to measure emotion recognition. A simple regression indicated that total ACE scores did not significantly predict overall negative emotion selections. However, multivariate analyses revealed that specific ACEs were associated with particular emotion recognition patterns. Higher emotional abuse predicted more anger selections in anger-happy faces, maternal violence predicted more anger in anger-sad faces and more disgust in disgust-sad faces, and parental mental illness predicted more disgust selections in disgust-sad faces. These findings suggest that certain types of childhood adversity may have a stronger influence on emotion recognition than ACEs overall. Overall, the results highlight that the nature and severity of childhood experiences can profoundly shape everyday emotional perception and interpretation.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS