Individuals with and without child maltreatment experiences are evaluated similarly and do not differ in facial affect display at zero- and first-acquaintance

Lara-Lynn Hautle; Jennifer Kurath; Lena Jellestad; Antonia M Lüönd; Tanja S H Wingenbach; Sascha Frühholz; Billy Jansson; Inga Niedtfeld; Monique C Pfaltz

doi:10.1186/s40479-023-00222-3

Individuals with and without child maltreatment experiences are evaluated similarly and do not differ in facial affect display at zero- and first-acquaintance

Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul. 2023 May 21;10(1):17. doi: 10.1186/s40479-023-00222-3.

Authors

Lara-Lynn Hautle^{1

2}, Jennifer Kurath^{1

2}, Lena Jellestad^{1

2}, Antonia M Lüönd^{1

2}, Tanja S H Wingenbach^{1

2

3}, Sascha Frühholz⁴, Billy Jansson⁵, Inga Niedtfeld⁶, Monique C Pfaltz^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Medical Faculty, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ School of Human Sciences, Faculty of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Psychology and Social Work, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim at, Central Institute of Mental Health, Heidelberg University, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany.
⁷ Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. monique.pfaltz@miun.se.
⁸ Medical Faculty, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. monique.pfaltz@miun.se.
⁹ Department of Psychology and Social Work, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden. monique.pfaltz@miun.se.

Abstract

Background: Individuals with a history of child maltreatment (CM) are more often disliked, rejected and victimized compared to individuals without such experiences. However, contributing factors for these negative evaluations are so far unknown.

Objective: Based on previous research on adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD), this preregistered study assessed whether negative evaluations of adults with CM experiences, in comparison to unexposed controls, are mediated by more negative and less positive facial affect display. Additionally, it was explored whether level of depression, severity of CM, social anxiety, social support, and rejection sensitivity have an influence on ratings.

Methods: Forty adults with CM experiences (CM +) and 40 non-maltreated (CM-) adults were filmed for measurement of affect display and rated in likeability, trustworthiness, and cooperativeness by 100 independent raters after zero-acquaintance (no interaction) and 17 raters after first-acquaintance (short conversation).

Results: The CM + and the CM- group were neither evaluated significantly different, nor showed significant differences in affect display. Contrasting previous research, higher levels of BPD symptoms predicted higher likeability ratings (p = .046), while complex post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms had no influence on ratings.

Conclusions: The non-significant effects could be attributed to an insufficient number of participants, as our sample size allowed us to detect effects with medium effect sizes (f² = .16 for evaluation; f² = .17 for affect display) with a power of .95. Moreover, aspects such as the presence of mental disorders (e.g., BPD or post-traumatic stress disorder), might have a stronger impact than CM per se. Future research should thus further explore conditions (e.g., presence of specific mental disorders) under which individuals with CM are affected by negative evaluations as well as factors that contribute to negative evaluations and problems in social relationships.

Keywords: Child maltreatment; Facial emotion expression; First-acquaintance; Zero-acquaintance.