Cargando…

The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma

Early adversity and trauma can have profound effects on children’s affective development and mental health outcomes. Interventions that improve mental health and socioemotional development are essential to mitigate these effects. We conducted a pilot study examining whether a reading-based program (...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Michalek, Julia E., Lisi, Matteo, Awad, Deema, Hadfield, Kristin, Mareschal, Isabelle, Dajani, Rana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8024483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33841247
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.613754
_version_ 1783675318956982272
author Michalek, Julia E.
Lisi, Matteo
Awad, Deema
Hadfield, Kristin
Mareschal, Isabelle
Dajani, Rana
author_facet Michalek, Julia E.
Lisi, Matteo
Awad, Deema
Hadfield, Kristin
Mareschal, Isabelle
Dajani, Rana
author_sort Michalek, Julia E.
collection PubMed
description Early adversity and trauma can have profound effects on children’s affective development and mental health outcomes. Interventions that improve mental health and socioemotional development are essential to mitigate these effects. We conducted a pilot study examining whether a reading-based program (We Love Reading) improves emotion recognition and mental health through socialization in Syrian refugee (n = 49) and Jordanian non-refugee children (n = 45) aged 7–12 years old (M = 8.9, 57% girls) living in Jordan. To measure emotion recognition, children classified the expression in faces morphed between two emotions (happy–sad and fear–anger), while mental health was assessed using survey measures of optimism, depression, anxiety, distress, and insecurity. Prior to the intervention, both groups of children were significantly biased to interpret ambiguous facial expressions as sad, while there was no clear bias on the fear–anger spectrum. Following the intervention, we found changes in Syrian refugee children’s bias in emotion recognition away from sad facial expressions, although this returned to pre-intervention levels 2 months after the end of the program. This shift in the bias away from sad facial expressions was not associated with changes in self-reported mental health symptoms. These results suggest a potential positive role of the reading intervention on affective development, but further research is required to determine the longer-term impacts of the program.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8024483
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-80244832021-04-08 The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma Michalek, Julia E. Lisi, Matteo Awad, Deema Hadfield, Kristin Mareschal, Isabelle Dajani, Rana Front Psychol Psychology Early adversity and trauma can have profound effects on children’s affective development and mental health outcomes. Interventions that improve mental health and socioemotional development are essential to mitigate these effects. We conducted a pilot study examining whether a reading-based program (We Love Reading) improves emotion recognition and mental health through socialization in Syrian refugee (n = 49) and Jordanian non-refugee children (n = 45) aged 7–12 years old (M = 8.9, 57% girls) living in Jordan. To measure emotion recognition, children classified the expression in faces morphed between two emotions (happy–sad and fear–anger), while mental health was assessed using survey measures of optimism, depression, anxiety, distress, and insecurity. Prior to the intervention, both groups of children were significantly biased to interpret ambiguous facial expressions as sad, while there was no clear bias on the fear–anger spectrum. Following the intervention, we found changes in Syrian refugee children’s bias in emotion recognition away from sad facial expressions, although this returned to pre-intervention levels 2 months after the end of the program. This shift in the bias away from sad facial expressions was not associated with changes in self-reported mental health symptoms. These results suggest a potential positive role of the reading intervention on affective development, but further research is required to determine the longer-term impacts of the program. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8024483/ /pubmed/33841247 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.613754 Text en Copyright © 2021 Michalek, Lisi, Awad, Hadfield, Mareschal and Dajani. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Michalek, Julia E.
Lisi, Matteo
Awad, Deema
Hadfield, Kristin
Mareschal, Isabelle
Dajani, Rana
The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma
title The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma
title_full The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma
title_fullStr The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma
title_full_unstemmed The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma
title_short The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma
title_sort effects of a reading-based intervention on emotion processing in children who have suffered early adversity and war related trauma
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8024483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33841247
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.613754
work_keys_str_mv AT michalekjuliae theeffectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT lisimatteo theeffectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT awaddeema theeffectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT hadfieldkristin theeffectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT mareschalisabelle theeffectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT dajanirana theeffectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT michalekjuliae effectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT lisimatteo effectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT awaddeema effectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT hadfieldkristin effectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT mareschalisabelle effectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma
AT dajanirana effectsofareadingbasedinterventiononemotionprocessinginchildrenwhohavesufferedearlyadversityandwarrelatedtrauma