Reconocimiento emocional facial y nivel de agresividad en niños diagnosticados de TDAH

Abstract

Background: It is found the existence of deficits in emotional recognition of facial expressions
in children diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). There is
evidence supporting that these deficits are associated with aggressive and / or antisocial
behavior. The aim of the study is to establish the differences in facial emotion recognition
between groups of children with ADHD with different levels of aggressiveness, measuring
emotional recognition with two virtual tools (FEEL and e-Motion-I). Method: 39 men aged
between 8 and 12 years are assessed, classified according to different levels of aggressiveness
(very adapted, adjusted, normal, at risk and clinically significant) according to their T scores on
the scale of the BASC aggression. Results: Descriptive and non-parametric analysis was
conducted to examine differences in variables of aggressiveness and emotion recognition. The
51.3% of children shows a clinically significant level of aggression (n = 20). Significant differences were found between subgroups of level of aggression in the total correct responses
on the facial expression of anger (p < .05), being the group < > which showed higher
hit rate. Similar results were found in relation to the emotion of disgust (p = .03). Conclusions:
In general, there are a high percentage of children with aggression. The subgroup of children
with higher levels shows a greater sensitivity to the aggression associated to emotions like anger
and disgust. They raise a number of hypotheses about the relationship found from which can be
derived therapeutic implications.
Keywords: ADHD, facial emotion recognition, aggressiveness, virtual tool.