Journal article
Biopsychosocial Correlates of Facial Emotion Recognition in Early Adolescence
New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Vol.2026(1), pp.1-13
2026
Abstract
Facial emotion recognition (FER) is a critical sociocognitive ability that underpins successful social interactions and undergoes developmental changes during adolescence. Since biopsychosocial factors influencing FER in adolescence have been under-researched concurrently, and past literature has utilised emotion recognition tasks with psychometric limitations, this cross-sectional study examined associations between FER (accuracy and speed) measured on the Penn Emotion Recognition Task (Penn-ER-40) and a verbal intelligence proxy (Wide Range Achievement Test-4 word reading subtest), sex, wellbeing (COMPAS-W scale) and social connectedness (Social Connectedness Scale) in 12–13-year-olds (N = 99, 52.5% female). Multiple regressions revealed a significant association between verbal intelligence and accuracy and sex differences for reaction time. A post-hoc MANOVA found females were faster in correct responses of happiness, fear and sadness, but not anger or neutral expressions. Exploratory ANOVAs investigating FER differences by pubertal stage (n = 28) were nonsignificant. The results contribute novel findings to the field of FER research. Future longitudinal studies may utilise this biopsychosocial approach to investigate the interrelated and diverse factors impacting FER development during adolescence.
Details
- Title
- Biopsychosocial Correlates of Facial Emotion Recognition in Early Adolescence
- Authors
- Poppy Ball (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastAmanda Boyes (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastSophie Andrews (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastMarcella J Parker (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastTaliah Prince (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastLia Mills (Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastDaniel Hermens (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Vol.2026(1), pp.1-13
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.1155/cad/3910344
- ISSN
- 1534-8687
- Copyright note
- This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright © 2026 Poppy L. Ball et al. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Data Availability
- The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
- Grant note
- This study was funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government’s ‘Prioritising Mental Health Initiative’ (2018–2026) (Grant Number 4-IKYOZBK).
- Organisation Unit
- Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science; Healthy Ageing Research Cluster; Thompson Institute; School of Health - Psychology; School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991227030502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Psychology, Developmental
- Sociology