Cognitieve empathie en emotieherkenning bij kinderen met externaliserend  probleemgedrag

Externalizing behavior in childhood is considered an important predictor for behavioral disorders and antisocial behavior in adolescence and early adulthood. Knowledge of which factors are related to the presence of externalizing behavior could help create effective interventions for reducing externalizing behavior. Previous research indicated that there is a negative relation between emotion recognition, empathy with externalizing behavior, but the results are inconsistent. The present study aimed to examine whether externalizing behavior could be predicted by emotion recognition and empathy within a sample of children showing externalizing behavior (n = 130). Externalizing behavior was measured with the TRF, nonverbal emotion recognition with the FER, verbal emotion recognition with the ANT prosody task, and cognitive empathy with questions about different emotional video clips. Results showed that non-verbal and verbal recognition of emotions did not correlate significantly with...Show moreExternalizing behavior in childhood is considered an important predictor for behavioral disorders and antisocial behavior in adolescence and early adulthood. Knowledge of which factors are related to the presence of externalizing behavior could help create effective interventions for reducing externalizing behavior. Previous research indicated that there is a negative relation between emotion recognition, empathy with externalizing behavior, but the results are inconsistent. The present study aimed to examine whether externalizing behavior could be predicted by emotion recognition and empathy within a sample of children showing externalizing behavior (n = 130). Externalizing behavior was measured with the TRF, nonverbal emotion recognition with the FER, verbal emotion recognition with the ANT prosody task, and cognitive empathy with questions about different emotional video clips. Results showed that non-verbal and verbal recognition of emotions did not correlate significantly with externalizing behavior, except when there was less non-verbal emotion recognition of happy feelings there was slightly more externalizing behavior. Externalizing behavior was not predicted by verbal-, and non-verbal emotion recognition, and cognitive empathy. There also was no partial mediation from verbal- and non-verbal emotion recognition on the relationship between cognitive empathy and externalizing behavior. It seems that children that show less cognitive empathy and correct verbal and non-verbal emotion recognition do not show more externalizing behavior. It is possible that this is different for certain emotions, because children who were slightly better at recognizing the non-verbal emotion happy showed slightly less externalizing behavior. Future research should include the possible effect of age on the relationship between emotion recognition and cognitive empathy with externalizing behavior and the possible difference of externalizing behavior reported by teachers and parents should be taken into account.Show less

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Cognitieve empathie en emotieherkenning bij kinderen met externaliserend probleemgedrag