Abstract:

Objective To explore the characteristics of emotion recognition in children aged 7-14 years. Methods Nine hundred and sixty-one students aged 7-14 years were enrolled to rate the emotion dimensions of valence, arousal and dominance with the scale of Native Chinese Affective Picture System for Children. The relationship among scores of each emotion dimension was analysed, and the differences in age and gender of each emotion dimension were determined. Results For positive pictures (score of valence >6), the score of valence was positively related to that of arousal and dominace (r=0.56, r=0.40, P<0.01）. For neutral pictures (score of valence 4-6), the score of valence was negatively related to that of arousal (r=-0.70, P<0.01）and positively related to that of dominance (r=0.69, P<0.01）. For negative pictures (score of valence <4), the score of arousal was negatively related to that of dominance (r=-0.95, P<0.01）. There were significant differences in scores of emotion dimensions between genders (P<0.05）. There were significant differences in scores of arousal and dominance among children with different ages (P<0.01）. Age was weakly negatively related to score of arousal (r=-0.18, P<0.01), and was weakly positively related to that of dominance (r=0.10, P<0.01). Conclusion There are significant differences in age and gender for emotion recognition in children, and the ratings are various among pictures with different characteristics, which needs to be considered in further researches.

Key words: children, emotion, recognition, affective picture system