(PS4-B33) Examining Facial Emotion Recognition Differences in Children with Conduct Problems, Attention Difficulties, and Callous-unemotional Traits

Deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been widely associated with childhood externalizing pathologies (i.e., conduct problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. The present study is among the first to examine unique relationships between FER accuracy and symptoms of ADHD, conduct problems, and CU traits among children. Based on existing literature, we hypothesized that CU traits would be associated with lower FER for fearful expressions, that conduct problems would be associated with lower FER for anger, and that inattentive symptoms would be associated with poorer FER across all emotions. A racially diverse (50% White, 40.9% Black, 6.9% more than one race, 2.3% Asian) community sample of children (N = 44, M age = 8.5 years, 65.9% male) completed a computerized task displaying static face stimuli measuring FER abilities across six emotions (i.e., sad, happy, angry, disgusted, fearful, neutral). FER accuracy on this task was compared to caregiver report on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 2001) of child attention problems, aggression, and rule-breaking, as well as CU traits on the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2002). CU traits were inversely associated with FER accuracy for fear and neutral expressions (fear FER r = -.354, p = .018; neutral FER r = -.339, p = .024). Attention problems (fear FER r = -.315, p = .037; neutral FER r = -.350, p = .020) and aggression (fear FER, r = -.350, p = .020; neutral FER r = -.335, p = .026) were likewise inversely associated with fear and neutral FER accuracy. Generalized linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that rule-breaking alone uniquely predicted accuracy across all emotions (exp = 1.198, p = .003). These findings are preliminary as we aim to collect and include findings for n = 30 additional families by November. This study fits the current Convention theme in its focus on identifying risk factors for disease burden in diverse and minoritized populations. Our initial findings highlight the importance of concurrently investigating cognitive risk factors for frequently co-occurring externalizing problems in children.