Facial Affect Recognition and Interpretation in Adolescents At Risk for Developing Bipolar Disorder

This study sought to replicate the finding that adolescents at risk for developing bipolar disorder (BPD) have facial affect processing deficits as well as to examine the relationship between affect processing and family environment. Participants with a family history of bipolar disorder with (AR + BPD) and without (AR) the disorder themselves were compared with healthy adolescents (HC) on tasks of facial affect recognition, affect discrimination, affect acuity, facial recognition and attention. These results did not identify any differences between groups on any aspect of affect labeling or interpretation. Groups did differ with respect to family functioning. Specifically, AR + BPD and AR parents reported less expressiveness than HC and AR + BPD and AR parents and children reported greater conflict than HC. Greater expressiveness was consistently related to better affective processing across all three groups. For those with bipolar disorder, high child reported organization was related to more accurate interpretive rating of sad-neutral faces. For those who were only at risk, higher organization correlated with poorer labeling of fearful faces and poorer affective interpretation ratings.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Cincinnati

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Long, Elizabeth A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shear, Paula

• Behavioral Sciences
• Bipolar Disorder
• Adolescent
• At Risk
• High Risk
• Family Environment
• Emotional Processing

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1352402023

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:ucin1352402023