Childhood exposure to traumatic violence may shape how children respond to threatening faces and increase risk for psychopathology. Maltreated children may exhibit altered processing of threatening faces; however, the effects of witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) on children’s discrimination of facial expressions is under-studied. Emotional face processing differentially relates to psychopathology, with some evidence suggesting improved detection of angry faces in children with fear-related anxiety symptoms, whereas externalizing symptoms are associated with poorer detection of fearful faces and perhaps emotional faces broadly. In this cross-sectional study, we examined discrimination of threatening emotional faces (angry, fearful) in relation to experiences of probable abuse and witnessing of physical IPV, as well as psychopathology. Children (N = 137, mean age = 5.01 years, SD = 0.81) completed a “face in the crowd task” designed to examine discrimination of angry and fearful faces. Children either searched for an angry face among fearful distractor faces or a fearful face among angry distractors. Probable child abuse, witnessed IPV, and symptoms were assessed in semi-structured maternal interviews. Children who witnessed violence showed poorer accuracy when fearful faces were the target; however, effects for probable abuse were non-significant. Greater fear-related anxiety symptoms were associated with poorer accuracy for fearful faces. Externalizing symptoms were associated with poorer overall accuracy. Findings suggest that IPV and fear-related anxiety symptoms were associated with difficulty detecting fearful faces when angry distractors were present, consistent with prior research. Implications of violence- and symptom-associated deficits in emotional face processing are discussed.

童年时期遭受创伤性暴力可能会影响儿童对威胁性面孔的反应，并增加患精神病的风险。受虐待的儿童可能会表现出对威胁性面孔的处理方式发生改变；然而，目睹亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）对儿童面部表情歧视的影响尚未得到充分研究。情绪面部处理与精神病理学存在差异，一些证据表明，具有恐惧相关焦虑症状的儿童对愤怒面部的检测能力有所提高，而外化症状则与对恐惧面部甚至情绪面部的较差检测有关。在这项横断面研究中，我们研究了对威胁性情绪面孔（愤怒、恐惧）的歧视与可能的虐待经历和目睹身体 IPV 以及精神病理学的关系。儿童（ N = 137，平均年龄 = 5.01 岁， SD = 0.81）完成了一项“人群中的面孔任务”，旨在检查对愤怒和恐惧面孔的歧视。孩子们要么在恐惧的干扰者面孔中寻找愤怒的面孔，要么在愤怒的干扰者中寻找恐惧的面孔。在半结构化母亲访谈中评估了可能的儿童虐待、目睹的 IPV 和症状。当看到恐惧的面孔成为目标时，目睹暴力的儿童表现出较差的准确性；然而，对可能的滥用行为的影响并不显着。与恐惧相关的焦虑症状越严重，恐惧面孔的准确度就越差。外化症状与较差的整体准确性相关。研究结果表明，当存在愤怒的干扰因素时，IPV 和与恐惧相关的焦虑症状与难以察觉恐惧面孔有关，这与之前的研究一致。 讨论了情感面部处理中暴力和症状相关缺陷的影响。