WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A new study from Binghamton University suggests that depression may affect how children pay attention to emotional facial expressions, such as happy or sad faces. Researchers also found that these patterns vary depending on whether a child has a family history of depression.
During the study, scientists followed 242 children and their mothers for two years, conducting assessments every six months. During each visit, the children were shown pairs of faces on a screen. One face had a neutral expression, while the other showed an emotion such as happiness, sadness, or anger. Eye-tracking technology was used to measure which faces attracted the children's attention and how long they looked at them.
The results showed that changes in depressive symptoms influenced attention patterns differently based on family background. Among children whose mothers had a history of major depression, increasing depressive symptoms were linked to spending more time looking at sad faces.
'We know that when you're depressed, it changes what you pay attention to,' lead author Kelly Gair said. 'Our results suggest that these changes may be more long-lasting and may differ depending on family history. One thought is that for children of mothers with depression, who are exposed to more facial displays of sadness from interactions with their mom, these types of facial expressions become even more salient when they experience depression themselves, so their attention becomes increasingly stuck on sad expressions.'
In contrast, children whose mothers had no history of depression showed a different pattern. When their depressive symptoms increased, they spent less time looking at happy faces.
'In our lower-risk children, what seems to be happening is that experiences of depression are eroding a protective factor, which is how much they pay attention to happy faces,' study author Brandon Gibb said.
Researchers are continuing to monitor the children as they enter adolescence to better understand whether these attention patterns may increase the risk of developing clinical depression later in life.
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