Difficulty recognizing negative emotions (NEs) in children is linked to increased antisocial traits and externalizing problems. However, crucial aspects of this relation remain unclear, such as: whether NE recognition is associated with externalizing problems in general or only a particular subcomponent (i.e., aggression); whether subcomponents of NE recognition (i.e., insensitivity and misspecifications) are relatively more important; and how these relations change over the course of development. We assessed emotion recognition, overt aggression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms in an ethnically diverse sample of Canadian children (N = 150; 4-year-olds, N = 148; 8-year-olds) and followed up with them 1 year later (86.9% retention). Emotion recognition was assessed using a behavioral task and caregivers reported on children's externalizing symptoms. Children with lower NE recognition had higher initial, but not subsequent, overt aggression, even when controlling for nonaggressive externalizing symptoms (i.e., ADHD and ODD symptoms). NE recognition was not concurrently or longitudinally associated with nonaggressive externalizing symptoms. Age and gender did not moderate these findings. Both higher NE insensitivity (e.g., reporting a sad face appears neutral) and misspecifications (e.g., reporting a sad face appears angry) were significantly associated with higher concurrent overt aggression. In conclusion, both NE insensitivity and misspecifications were found to be uniquely important for children's overt aggression. These findings highlight the importance of different forms of NE recognition and differentiating between aggressive and nonaggressive externalizing problems in children.

中文翻译：

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儿童的情绪识别和攻击性：一项多队列纵向研究

难以识别儿童的负面情绪 (NEs) 与反社会特征的增加和外化问题有关。然而，这种关系的关键方面仍不清楚，例如：NE 识别是否与一般的外在化问题有关，还是仅与特定的子组件（即攻击性）有关？NE 识别的子成分（即不敏感和错误指定）是否相对更重要；以及这些关系如何在发展过程中发生变化。我们评估了加拿大儿童（N  = 150；4 岁儿童，N = 148; 8 岁儿童）并在 1 年后跟进（保留率为 86.9%）。使用行为任务和护理人员报告儿童的外化症状来评估情绪识别。即使控制了非攻击性外化症状（即 ADHD 和 ODD 症状），NE 识别率较低的儿童初始但不是随后的公开攻击性较高。NE 识别与非攻击性外化症状不同时或纵向相关。年龄和性别并未影响这些发现。较高的 NE 不敏感（例如，报告一张悲伤的脸看起来中性）和错误说明（例如，报告一张悲伤的脸看起来很生气）都与更高的并发公开攻击性显着相关。综上所述，发现 NE 不敏感和错误指定对于儿童的公开攻击性具有独特的重要性。这些发现强调了不同形式的 NE 识别和区分儿童攻击性和非攻击性外化问题的重要性。