Low Self-Esteem and Impairments in Emotion Recognition Predict Behavioural Problems in Children
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Low Self-Esteem and Impairments in Emotion Recognition Predict Behavioural Problems in Children Amy E. Wells 1 & Laura M. Hunnikin 1 & Daniel P. Ash 3 & Stephanie H. M. van Goozen 1,2
# The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Research indicates that low self-esteem and impaired emotion recognition are risk factors for antisocial behaviour (ASB). Selfesteem and emotion recognition are essential for successful social interaction and previous research suggests that self-esteem and emotional intelligence are positively related. However, to our knowledge the relationship between these two risk factors for ASB has not been explored in children with behavioural problems. Thus, this study investigated self-esteem and emotion recognition, their relationship with one another and with behavioural problem severity. Participants were 8–11 year olds with behavioural problems (BP; n = 78) who were taking part in an early intervention program, and typically developing controls (TD; n = 54). Participants completed a self-esteem questionnaire and a computerised emotion recognition task. Teachers and parents rated children’s emotional and behavioural problems. BP participants had significantly lower self-esteem and exhibited an impairment in emotion recognition. Self-esteem and emotion recognition were positively related and inversely associated with behavioural problem severity and they predicted behaviour problems independently of one another. This is the first study to show that selfesteem and emotion recognition are related processes in children with behavioural problems and that both predict behavioural problems. This has important implications for the development of intervention strategies. Keywords Behavioural problems . Antisocial behaviour . Self-esteem . Self-perception . Emotion recognition . Peer relationships . Self-enhancing bias
Introduction Self-esteem, or how an individual feels about themselves (Leary and Baumeister 2000), is considered to be an important indicator of psychological functioning (McCauley et al. 2017). People with high self-esteem are generally happier and more likely to enjoy close friendships (Leary et al. 1995). In contrast, low self-esteem is one of the strongest predictors of emotional and behavioural problems (Leary et al. 1995) and has been implicated in a variety of youth problems (Barry et al. 2007), including the development of antisocial behaviour (ASB; Trzesniewski et al. 2006).
* Stephanie H. M. van Goozen [email protected] 1
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK
2
Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
3
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Northampton, Northampton, UK
Low self-esteem has been reported in numerous antisocial populations including children and adolescents with conduct problems (Barry et al. 2003), adolescents at-risk of future ASB (Barry et al. 2007), adolescents with conduct disorder (CD; Glass et al. 2011) and youth offenders (Matsuura et al. 2010). In addition to c
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