The Impact of Protective Factors on the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Facial Affect Recognition

Abstract

The amount of research focusing on the relationship between facial affect recognition (FAR) and adverse childhood experience (ACEs) is growing. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between ACEs and FAR with protective factors as a potential moderator. Convenience sampling yielded 1058 responses to the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - Short Form (CTQ – SF), Protective Factors for Resilience Scale (PFRS), and the Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotions (JACFEE). It was hypothesized that ACEs would be associated with higher misclassifications of emotions and protective factors would be negatively associated with misclassifications. Additionally, it was hypothesized that protective factors would moderate the relationship between ACEs and FAR, and that certain types of ACEs would correlate more strongly with certain types of misclassifications. Results indicated that the number of ACEs significantly predicted increased misclassifications of emotions and protective factors significantly predicted decreased misclassifications of emotions. Protective factors moderated the relationship between ACEs and misclassifications of emotions. The Sexual Abuse ACE had a significant and positive moderate relationship with misclassifications of emotions. The subsequent ACEs (Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Emotional Neglect, Physical Neglect) had a significant, but weak relationship with misclassifications of emotion.