Multiple psychiatric disorders are associated with difficulties in facial emotion recognition. However, generalized anxiety disorder may be associated with more accurate recognition of others’ emotional expressions, particularly expressions of happiness and fear, which index safety and threat. Children aged 9–14 from a community sample (N = 601) completed a facial emotion labeling task. Children’s symptoms of depressive and anxiety syndromes were assessed by self- and parent-report. Elevated symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder were associated with more accurate facial emotion recognition (β = 0.16, p = 0.007), specifically recognition of happiness (β = 0.17, p = 0.002) and fear (β = 0.15, p = 0.006). Elevated depressive symptoms were associated with less accurate facial emotion recognition (β = −0.12, p = 0.018), specifically happiness (β = −0.15, p = 0.002). Elevated symptoms of separation anxiety disorder were also associated with less accurate facial emotion recognition (β = −0.16, p = 0.003), specifically happiness (β = −0.15, p = 0.006) and fear (β = −0.15, p = 0.005), which highlights the importance of distinguishing between anxiety syndromes. Results held when adjusting for child age and sex. Evidence that symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder are associated with more accurate recognition of happiness and fear is consistent with theories of heightened social vigilance and support a transdiagnostic role of facial emotion recognition that may inform the psychosocial development of youth with anxiety and depressive symptoms.

多种精神疾病与面部情绪识别困难有关。然而，广泛性焦虑症可能与更准确地识别他人的情绪表达有关，特别是幸福和恐惧的表达，这些表达是安全和威胁的指标。来自社区样本 (N = 601) 的 9-14 岁儿童完成了面部情绪标记任务。通过自我报告和家长报告评估儿童的抑郁和焦虑综合征症状。广泛性焦虑症的症状升高与更准确的面部情绪识别相关（β = 0.16，p  = 0.007），特别是对快乐（β = 0.17，p  = 0.002）和恐惧（β = 0.15，p = 0.006)。抑郁症状升高与面部情绪识别不太准确（β = -0.12，p  = 0.018），特别是幸福感（β = -0.15，p  = 0.002）相关。分离焦虑症的症状升高也与不太准确的面部情绪识别相关（β = -0.16，p  = 0.003），特别是幸福（β = -0.15，p  = 0.006）和恐惧（β = -0.15，p = 0.005），这突出了区分焦虑综合征的重要性。调整儿童年龄和性别时的结果。广泛性焦虑症的症状与对幸福和恐惧的更准确识别相关的证据与提高社会警惕性的理论一致，并支持面部情绪识别的跨诊断作用，这可能为患有焦虑和抑郁症状的青年的心理社会发展提供信息。