Poster #88 - Deprivation adversity impacts emotion knowledge through language development

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

Adversity exposure is hypothesized to negatively impact the development of emotion knowledge in young children (Milojevich et al., 2021). Specifically, deprivation, a dimension of adversity characterized by a lack of expected early learning experiences, is posited to be particularly related to the development of emotion knowledge, above other dimensions of adversity such as exposure to violence. Initial evidence is consistent with this hypothesis (Sullivan et al., 2010). One possible mechanism for the association between deprivation and emotion knowledge is through language development. Language is important for the development of emotion knowledge; as children gain vocabulary and communicative skills, they are better able to represent and communicate abstract ideas, which leads to the acquisition of emotion knowledge (Salmon et al., 2016). Children who experience deprivation often exhibit decreased language ability, likely due to a lack of exposure to vocabulary and scaffolding experiences around language use and practice (McLaughlin et al., 2017). Given the existing association between deprivation and language and the known association between language and emotion knowledge, we hypothesize that deprivation will negatively impact the development of emotion knowledge in young children through language ability. In a sample of 70 4–7-year-olds, we collected caregiver and child reports of adversity, verbal IQ standard scores on the KBIT, and the child’s knowledge of 24 emotion words (Nook et al., 2020). Deprivation was negatively associated with both verbal IQ (B = -1.18, SE = 0.29, p < 0.001) and emotion knowledge (B = -0.51, SE = 0.21, p < 0.05) when controlling for threat. Verbal scores were positively associated with emotion knowledge (B = 0.29, SE = 0.07, p < 0.001). Finally, verbal IQ mediated the association between deprivation and emotion knowledge (95% CI [-0.82, -0.17], p < 0.001). This pattern of associations suggests that early childhood deprivation relative to threat is uniquely associated with decreased emotion knowledge due to having diminished overall language capacity. Decreased emotion knowledge in early childhood is a risk factor for psychopathology (Fine et al., 2003). Thus, this may be one pathway through which deprivation adversity increases risk for poor health outcomes. This study measured emotion knowledge verbally, which may confound emotion knowledge and verbal emotion communication ability. Future directions should tease these two concepts apart to see if deprivation impacts both verbal emotion communication and emotion knowledge through language development. Additionally, future directions will examine if associations between deprivation and emotion knowledge through language persist throughout adolescence and adulthood.

Authors

• Amy E Carolus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Celina Meyer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Lucy Lurie

• Helen Milojevich, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Margaret A. Sheridan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill