Het decoderen van emoties en afwijzing in diverse soorten gezichtsexpressies bij adolescenten voorafgaand, tijdens en na een depressieve episode.

Abstract

Abstract Background. Depressive symptoms increase during adolescence both in clinical and normative groups, and particularly in girls. Deficits in gender-specific nonverbal behaviours have been linked to depressive symptoms in adolescence. This longitudinal study was designed to examine differences between depressed and non- depressed adolescents (12–18 years) in decoding emotion intensity and perceived rejection / acceptance in both basic and non-basic facial expressions. The focus was to examine if these differences are present before, during and/or after the mild depression. Methode. Over a period of 2.5 years, the participants were followed. During this period there have been four measurements with an interval of 9 months. There were 67 girls and 51 boys who experienced their first episode of mild depression. They were compared with a matched group of gender, age, education, degree of depression but most of all never depressed participants. Results. Findings provide differences that are present before and during the depressive episode. Depressed adolescents (boys and girls) differ in perceived intensity of the emotions that are examined in basal faces in comparison with non-depressed adolescents. Contrary to expectations they see less of the emotions at the time of the depression. As expected, acceptance in basal happy faces is less observed before and during the depression. Mainly by depressed boys. Before and during the depression both boys and girls show more anger in low intensity faces than non-depressed adolescents, but depressed girls are also more inclined to read rejection of low intensity faces. They will therefore be more prone to depression than boys. Interventions that modify these factors may help to identify depression, reduce depression incidence and recurrence among adolescents.