Infants' emotional expression: Differences in the expression of pleasure and discomfort between infants from Chile and the United States

Abstract

Nonverbal cues have been fundamental to the survival of our species, and they remain a critical aspect of communication. Starting at the moment of birth, children's facial expressions and body gestures reflecting pleasure and discomfort elicit different responses from caregivers, which can shape the trajectory of child development. Although early expressions of emotion are universal, socialization of the intensity of expressions begins in infancy and may be influenced by the place the child is born, family characteristics, and other factors. The aim of this study is to describe the differences in the intensity of emotional expression between Chilean and U.S. infants at approximately 1 year of age. Infants' emotional expressions of pleasure and discomfort are described in terms of total intensity and specific facial and corporal intensities. The expressions were assessed by videotaping and coding the children's behaviours during a sequence of pleasurable and displeasing activities. The analyses revealed that the U.S. children expressed pleasure and discomfort with greater intensity compared with the Chilean children, specifically through corporal expressions. Highlights This study explores differences in the intensity of emotional expression of Chilean and U.S. infants around 1 year of age. Assessment involved a sequence of videotaped tasks and showed U.S. infants expressed pleasure and discomfort with higher intensity than Chilean infants. Differences between both samples at 1 year reveal the possibility that cultural emotion socialization shapes emotional expressions very early in development.

Children with autism spectrum disorder produce more ambiguous and less socially meaningful facial expressions: an experimental study using random forest classifiers

“…children are better with request tasks than with imitation tasks) [6]; and (4) ethnic and cultural factors (e.g. cross-cultural studies indicate that the intensity of spontaneous expression is not universal and may vary across cultures) [10,11]. Similarly, in a previous study [6], we found that children from the south of France (Nice) were more expressive than children from the north (Paris).…”

Children Facial Expression Production: Influence of Age, Gender, Emotion Subtype, Elicitation Condition and Culture

“…These findings showed that ethnicity can influence the production of emotion but also that culturally based family environment modulates the effect of ethnicity. Moreover, this effect seems to appear in the 1st year of life ( Camras et al, 2007 ; Muzard et al, 2017 ).…”

¿Influyen el sexo y el temperamento en los cambios en la expresividad emocional de infantes chilenos? Un estudio longitudinal

“…Desde que un niño nace, los gestos y las expresiones faciales demuestran el placer y la incomodidad según los estímulos del ambiente al que se ven sometidos y de acuerdo con las necesidades interiores que experimentan (hambre o sueño, entre otras). Son justamente las expresiones faciales y su intensidad lo que permite inferir dichas necesidades en los lactantes por parte de los cuidadores, lo que va delimitando la trayectoria vital del infante (Muzard et al, 2017). En consecuencia, las expresiones faciales pueden ser entendidas como adaptativas, y juegan un papel muy importante pues expresan las necesidades del bebé, asimismo logran provocar respuestas en sus cuidadores (Mesman et al, 2012), y permiten que los mismos infantes en las diferentes circunstancias moldeen la expresión emocional hacia formas socialmente apropiadas de funcionamiento en una cultura en específico (Trommsdorff y Cole, 2011).…”