Heightened response to positive facial cues as a potential marker of resilience following childhood adversity

Background: Childhood maltreatment profoundly influences social and emotional development, increasing psychiatric risk. Alterations in the implicit processing of threat-related cues following early abuse and neglect represent a marker of mental health vulnerability. Less is known about how early adversity influences the perception of positive social cues, despite their central role in establishing and maintaining social interactions and their association with better mental health outcomes.Methods: The sample consisted of 42 children and adolescents with substantiated childhood maltreatment experiences and 32 peers (mean age 13.3), matched on age, pubertal status, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and cognitive ability. A computerised experimental task assessed the perceived emotional intensity of positive (happy) and negative (fearful) facial expressions. Mental health symptoms were measured via self- and parental reports, and perceived social support was self-reported.Results: The experience of abuse and neglect was associated with heightened perceived intensity of positive facial cues. Cross-sectional post-hoc moderation and mediation analyses, employing a model-building approach, revealed that in maltreatment-exposed participants: (i) their increased response to positive facial cues was associated with lower symptoms; (ii) the presence of social support accounted for their heightened perceived intensity of positive facial cues; (iii) the presence of social support putatively contributed to lower symptoms by increasing the perceived intensity of positive facial cues. No group differences in perceived intensity of negative expressions were observed.Conclusions: These findings provide fresh insight into how positive faces are processed following maltreatment experience in childhood. Maltreatment experience was found to be associated with heightened perceived intensity of happy faces, which in turn was associated with better mental health and greater levels of social support. This suggests that heightened saliency of positive emotions acts protectively in children with maltreatment experience. The impact of childhood maltreatment on perceiving positive social cues, especially explicit emotional intensity appraisal, is less understood compared to the extensive focus on its role in processing threat-related cues and psychiatric risk.In this study, we found that maltreatment experience was associated with heightened perceived intensity of happy faces, which in turn was associated with better mental health and greater levels of social support.These findings suggest that heightened saliency of positive emotions may act protectively in children with maltreatment experience. Antecedentes: El maltrato infantil influye profundamente en el desarrollo social y emocional, incrementando el riesgo de enfermedades psiquiatricas. Las alteraciones en el procesamiento implicito de senales de amenaza tras el abuso y negligencia tempranas representan un indicador de vulnerabilidad en la salud mental. Poco se sabe sobre como la adversidad temprana afecta la percepcion de senales sociales positivas, a pesar de su rol central en el establecimiento y mantenimiento de interacciones sociales y su asociacion con resultados de salud mental mas favorables.Metodo: La muestra incluyo a 42 ninos y adolescentes con experiencias de maltrato infantil corroboradas y 32 pares (Edad media 13,3 anos), emparejados por edad, etapa puberal, genero, nivel socioeconomico, etnia, y capacidad cognitiva. Un modelo computarizado, evaluo la percepcion de la intensidad emocional positiva (felicidad/alegres) y negativa (temerosa) de las expresiones faciales. Los sintomas de salud mental fueron medidos a traves de reportes propios y de los padres, y el apoyo social percibido fue autoreportado.Resultados: Las experiencias de abuso y negligencia se asociaron con una mayor percepcion de intensidad de las senales faciales positivas. El analisis de moderacion y mediacion post-hoc (o analisis derivados de datos) de corte transversal, utilizando un enfoque de construccion de modelos, revelo que en los participantes expuestos al maltrato: (i) su mayor respuesta a las senales faciales positivas estaba asociada a baja sintomatologia; (ii) la presencia de apoyo social explico la mayor intensidad percibida de las senales faciales positivas; (iii) la presencia de apoyo social contribuia supuestamente a reducir sintomatologia al aumentar las senales faciales positivas percibidas. No se observaron diferencias en la intensidad percibida de las expresiones negativas entre los grupos.Conclusiones: Estos hallazgos aportan una nueva vision sobre como las expresiones de caras positivas son procesadas, posterior a experiencias de maltrato durante la infancia. Se encontro que la experiencia de maltrato esta asociada con la percepcion de mayor intensidad de las caras felices, lo que a su vez se asocio con una mejor salud mental, y mayores niveles de apoyo social. Esto sugiere que el aumento de la intensidad de las emociones positivas actua como un efecto protector en ninos con experiencias de maltrato.