Emotion Recognition in Looked After Children in Wales: An Investigation and Intervention Study

在威尔士，每10000个孩子中有109个因为出生家庭无法照顾他们而被“照顾”。大多数人在出生家庭环境中遭受虐待或忽视，使他们面临更大的心理健康问题风险，这些问题可能会持续到以后的生活（威尔士公共政策中心，2021年）。了解可能导致儿童心理健康问题的过程可以为干预提供途径，在出现障碍之前抵消风险轨迹（DeJong, 2010）。情绪识别是社会关系的基础，情绪识别障碍是一系列精神疾病的跨诊断风险因素（Burley et al., 2021）。从公共护理机构收养的儿童表现出与心理健康问题有关的情绪识别障碍（Paine等人，2021）。由于他们可能经历早期生活的逆境和不稳定，被照顾的儿童是一个弱势群体。研究问题1)被照顾的儿童是否表现出情绪识别方面的障碍？2)情绪识别训练是否能提高被照看儿童的情绪识别能力？3)训练6个月后，我们能否发现儿童心理健康和社会沟通方面的改善？方法作为概述，本研究将涉及新的基于学校的数据收集~N=50照看儿童（5-8岁）在南威尔士。家庭将通过本地学校的CUCHDS数据库招募；埃斯廷的报告将用于接近黑人和少数民族社区学生比例较高以及处于不利地位的学校。在基线阶段，儿童将完成一项情绪识别测试，他们在游戏中的自然行为将被编码为社会沟通技能（例如，亲社会行为）。教师和看护人员将填写关于儿童心理健康和背景的问卷。照顾者将完成一个五分钟的演讲样本，以评估照顾者与孩子关系的情绪气氛。没有情绪识别障碍的儿童将作为对照组，而有障碍的儿童将由学校工作人员给予卡迪夫情绪识别培训（CERT; https://emotionrecognition.cardiff.ac.uk/info/videos/）。在其他高风险儿童样本中，CERT已被证明可以改善情绪识别并减少心理健康问题（Wells等人，2020）。儿童评估将在干预后6个月进行，以评估干预对儿童行为的积极影响。

In Wales, 109 per 10,000 children are 'looked after' because their birth family are unable to care for them. Most will have experienced abuse or neglect in the birth family environment, placing them at greater risk for developing mental health problems that can endure into later life (Wales Centre for Public Policy, 2021). Understanding the processes that might underpin a child's mental health problems can provide avenues for intervention to offset risk trajectories before disorder may emerge (DeJong, 2010). Emotion recognition is fundamental to social relationships, and impairment in emotion recognition is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders (Burley et al., 2021). Children adopted from public care show impairments in emotion recognition that are linked to their mental health problems (Paine et al., 2021). With their likelihood of experiencing early life adversity and instability, looked after children represent a vulnerable group. The overarching questions that will be asked in this studentship are: Research Questions1) Do looked after children show impairments in emotion recognition?2) Does emotion recognition training improve looked after children's emotion recognition?3) Can we detect improvements in children's mental health and social communication 6 months after training?MethodAs an overview, this research will involve new school-based data collection of ~N=50 looked after children (aged 5-8) in South Wales. Families will be recruited via CUCHDS databases of local schools; Estyn reports will be used to approach schools with a higher proportion of pupils from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and who experience disadvantage. At baseline, children will complete an emotion recognition test and their naturalistic behaviour during play will be coded for social communication skills (e.g., prosocial behaviour). Teachers and caregivers will complete questionnaires regarding children's mental health and background. Caregivers will complete a Five Minute Speech Sample to assess the emotional climate of the caregiver-child relationship. Children without an emotion recognition impairment will be the control group, and those with impairment will be given the Cardiff Emotion Recognition Training (CERT; https://emotionrecognition.cardiff.ac.uk/info/videos/) by school staff. In other high-risk samples of children the CERT has been shown to improve emotion recognition and reduce mental health problems (Wells et al., 2020). Child assessments will be repeated 6 months post-intervention to assess positive effects of the intervention on child behaviour.