Research indicates that low self-esteem and impaired emotion recognition are risk factors for antisocial behaviour (ASB). Self-esteem and emotion recognition are essential for successful social interaction and previous research suggests that self-esteem and emotional intelligence are positively related. However, to our knowledge the relationship between these two risk factors for ASB has not been explored in children with behavioural problems. Thus, this study investigated self-esteem and emotion recognition, their relationship with one another and with behavioural problem severity. Participants were 8–11 year olds with behavioural problems (BP; n = 78) who were taking part in an early intervention program, and typically developing controls (TD; n = 54). Participants completed a self-esteem questionnaire and a computerised emotion recognition task. Teachers and parents rated children’s emotional and behavioural problems. BP participants had significantly lower self-esteem and exhibited an impairment in emotion recognition. Self-esteem and emotion recognition were positively related and inversely associated with behavioural problem severity and they predicted behaviour problems independently of one another. This is the first study to show that self-esteem and emotion recognition are related processes in children with behavioural problems and that both predict behavioural problems. This has important implications for the development of intervention strategies.

中文翻译：

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低的自尊心和情绪识别障碍预测儿童的行为问题

研究表明，自尊心低下和情绪识别受损是反社会行为（ASB）的危险因素。自尊和情绪识别对于成功的社交互动至关重要，以前的研究表明，自尊和情绪智力之间存在正相关。然而，据我们所知，尚未在行为问题儿童中探讨这两种ASB危险因素之间的关系。因此，这项研究调查了自尊和情绪识别，他们之间的关系以及行为问题的严重程度。参与者有行为问题（BP；n  = 78）的8-11岁，他们参加了早期干预计划，并且通常制定控制措施（TD；n = 54）。参与者完成了自尊问卷和计算机化的情感识别任务。老师和父母给孩子们的情绪和行为问题打分。BP参与者的自尊心明显降低，并且在情感识别方面表现出障碍。自尊和情绪识别与行为问题的严重程度成正相关和负相关，它们彼此独立地预测行为问题。这是第一项表明自尊和情绪识别是行为问题儿童的相关过程，并且都可以预测行为问题的研究。这对制定干预策略具有重要意义。