Poster #97 - Children’s and Adolescents’ Disclosures of Negative Events: The Role of Dynamic Changes in Emotions and Stress

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

Child disclosures are critical for identifying child maltreatment; however, maltreated children often fail to disclose abuse to adults (Alaggia et al., 2017). Even when children experience minor transgressions in experimental settings, they do not disclose in about 30% of cases (McWilliams et al., 2021). Here, we aimed to explore the psychological mechanisms that might contribute to children’s disclosures about a negative event and the psychological repercussions of early versus delayed disclosures. We focused on emotions and stress because these factors affect how children cognitively process, remember, and report life events (Karni-Visel et al., 2022).
A preliminary sample of N = 45 children ages 4-12 years (Mage = 7.61, SD = 2.67, 48% girls) engaged in a toy-play activity with a confederate, during which two toys appeared to break in the child’s hands. The confederate warned the child that they might get in trouble if someone found out the toys broke and to keep the breakage a secret. Next, an interviewer questioned the child about the toy play using an adapted version of the National Institute of Child Health and Development structured protocol. Children’s responses were coded for rate (1 = disclosed any breakage, 0 = did not disclose) and timing (1 = before the forensic interview to 8 = after the closing section) of breakage disclosure. Children reported their discrete emotions and stress: (1) before the toy-play (baseline), (2) after the toy-play (post-transgression), and (3) after the interview (post-interview). Children reported their emotions (“Which emotions are you feeling?”) using a discrete emotion scale (displaying neutrality, happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear) and the intensity of their emotions (1 = not much to 3 = very much). Negative emotions (sadness, anger, fear) were combined due to low frequency rates. Children reported their levels of stress on two items (“how stressed do you feel right now?”, “how bad do you feel right now?”—items were aggregated for analyses).
Changes in discrete emotions are displayed in Figure 1. Quadratic changes in surprise were observed, F(2,43) = 7.65, p = .008, ηp2 = .15, such that surprise increased from baseline to post-transgression (p =.004), then marginally decreased post-interview (p = .082). There were no significant changes in stress over time. Children who disclosed (73%) reported less happiness, t(43) = -2.32, p = .025, Cohen’s d = 1.27, and more stress, t(43) = 2.19, p = .034, d = 0.53, from baseline to post-transgression compared to children who did not disclose (27%). Higher levels of surprise post-transgression were associated with earlier disclosures, r(43) = -0.30, p = .047. Finally, later disclosures were marginally associated with further increases in stress from post-transgression to post-interview in children (4-to 8-year-olds) but not adolescents (9- to 12-year-olds), r(19) = .42, p = .059.
This research sheds light on how children psychologically process minor transgressions, the potential role of happiness, surprise, and stress in prompting disclosures, and the toll delayed disclosures may have on children’s wellbeing. Ultimately, this work may inform how best to support children who have experienced negative events.

Authors

• Joanna Peplak, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Laura Marie Fulton, University of California - Irvine

• J. Zoe Klemfuss, University of California - Irvine