幼兒對戴口罩同儕之情緒辨識能力與線索使用

Children’s Emotion Recognition Skills and Cue Usage with Masked Peers

情緒辨識發展的關鍵時期發生在幼兒階段，對幼兒有深刻的影響。儘管我國疫情已解封，但為了保護幼兒的安全，幼兒園仍普遍讓幼兒戴口罩上學。臉部表情是幼兒辨識情緒最主要的線索，當失去完整的臉部表情線索，幼兒如何在戴著口罩的情況下辨識情緒，所造成的影響又是如何，尚未見國內相關研究之探討。此外，過去情緒辨識測量的刺激材料多為靜態的陌生人表情照片，無法反映真實生活中幼兒辨識他人情緒的狀況。本研究旨在瞭解同儕皆戴著口罩的情境下，幼兒情緒辨識能力的發展狀況。以151名3~6歲幼兒為對象，以班級同儕情緒互動之動態影片作為材料進行情緒辨識能力測驗，並分析其辨識準確度以及線索使用。研究結果顯示，幼兒在戴口罩的情況下，不僅容易混淆相同屬性的情緒類別，甚至連正、負向情緒分類都出現問題。而情緒線索之分析結果顯示，正確辨識情緒之幼兒，能對應不同情緒採用不同的線索來辨識情緒，未能有效辨識者則未能掌握適當的情緒線索，或無法將所獲得的線索與正確的情緒聯結在一起。本研究的發現除了瞭解失去完整臉部線索對幼兒情緒辨識能力的影響，也有助父母及教師留意幼兒在生活中面臨的困難，並提供可行的教學方向。文末並提出教育上的應用與對未來研究的建議。

The ability to recognize emotions begins developing in infancy and gradually evolves with age, progressing from recognizing basic emotions to understanding more diverse and complex emotional states. Emotion recognition is crucial for young children. It is positively associated with improved social skills and prosocial behaviors and negatively associated with aggressive, oppositional, and other problematic behaviors. After the emergence of COVID-19 in December 2019, the disease spread rapidly across the globe. By February 2020, the World Health Organization classified the global risk level of the pandemic as“very high.”By May 2021, the World Health Organization estimated that the true death toll was 2 to 3 times higher than official reports, reaching at least 6–8 million people. Considering the pandemic’s severity, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center mandated mask-wearing in eight key locations and implemented home isolation measures starting in 2020. The pandemic persisted in Taiwan for approximately 3 years. During this period, preschool children in Taiwan rarely encountered full facial expressions because mask-wearing became ubiquitous outside the home. In schools, masks were removed only during meal times; even then, children sat behind partitions. Despite the lifting of restrictions, kindergartens continue to require children to wear masks for safety. Moreover, parents have their children wear masks when going out. The effect of such measures on Taiwanese children’s emotion recognition skills remains unclear. In general, young children rely on the facial cues of others to recognize the other person’s emotions. Thus, relevant studies have focused on the recognition of facial expressions. However, when facial information is incomplete, children rely on alternative sources, such as language, bodily movements, and contextual cues, that masks do not obscure.
Child development research should thus address this unprecedented scenario and investigate how children rely on these nonfacial cues to recognize the emotions of masked individuals. Studies outside of Taiwan have already started to do so. Although most countries lifted restrictions relatively rapidly, Taiwan maintained the measures for > 3 years. Few studies have investigated how Taiwanese children recognize emotions with incomplete facial information and how they use multiple cues to identify expressions. Current research tools for evaluating children’s emotion recognition skills primarily use static images of strangers’faces as stimuli, which fail to capture real-world dynamics. In everyday life, children recognize the emotions of familiar individuals during dynamic interactions by processing facial expressions, body movements, verbal cues (particularly tone of voice), and contextual cues. Standardized emotion recognition tests often feature prototypical emotional expressions displayed by professionals following specific instructions, but these expressions do not reflect the nuances of children’s real-life interactions with peers.
Therefore, the present study explored children’s emotion recognition skills when interacting with masked peers, adapting research tools to better reflect real-life conditions. Instead of relying on picture cards or strangers’photos, this study used videos, rather than static images, of real-life interactions with classmates. This approach facilitated an accurate understanding of children’s emotion recognition skills and cue usage when interacting with masked peers. The present study included 151 children aged 3–6 years. V ideos of emotional interactions with peers were used to evaluate children’s emotion recognition accuracy and cue usage. The results revealed marked reductions in children’s ability to recognize emotions, such as sadness, surprise, fear, and disgust, in masked peers. Thus, children’s emotion recognition skills fell short of expectations; they frequently confused emotions within the same category and struggled with classifying basic positive and negative emotions. The analysis of emotional cues indicated that children who accurately recognized emotions used different cues for different emotions. Peers expressed emotions in various ways, which led to variations in emotional cues. Appropriate cues had to be adjusted for emotion recognition. Not all emotions could be identified through a single cue. Children who could not recognize emotions effectively were not only unfamiliar with the definitions of and differences between emotional categories but also struggled to identify appropriate emotional cues. Mask-wearing further reduced their ability to associate cues with the correct emotions, causing confusion even in classifying basic positive and negative emotions. These findings underscore a need for educational interventions to mitigate the effect of mask-wearing on children’s emotion recognition skills. Parents and educators should actively teach children strategies for recognizing emotions. Mastering the use of emotion recognition cues can help children accurately recognize the emotions of masked individuals. Thus, children should be taught various strategies and cues for recognizing emotions in daily life and encouraged to observe and interpret the emotional states of masked individuals. Understanding peers’emotions can also enhance children’s emotion recognition skills. Thus, peer interaction opportunities should be increased and children should be guided to pay attention to their peers’emotional expressions and feelings. The development of emotion recognition skills from infancy to early childhood involves progression from a basic to more nuanced understanding of emotions, which is vital for social competence and behavioral regulation. However, mask-wearing measures substantially reduced children’s exposure to full facial expressions during the pandemic. This reduction was particularly prominent in Taiwan, where such measures were strictly enforced for an extended period. This unique context provided a valuable opportunity for studies to investigate how children adapted to recognizing emotions when the primary cue—facial expression—was partially obscured. Studies from other countries with relatively short pandemic restrictions have begun to address these questions. However, the prolonged mask-wearing measures in Taiwan offers a unique opportunity to explore how children develop emotion recognition skills under sustained conditions of incomplete facial cues. The use of videos of interactions with classmates, rather than static images of strangers, in this study accurately reflected the real-world challenges children face in recognizing emotions during social interactions. This approach also helped leverage children’s current relationships with classmates and knowledge of their classmates’typical behaviors and expressions. The approach was based on an acknowledgment that children do not interact with strangers in isolation but rather engage in interactions in dynamic social environments, where they use a combination of verbal and nonverbal cues to interpret emotions. The findings suggested that more flexible and adaptive emotion recognition skills can be developed in children by subjecting them to a broader range of cues beyond facial expressions. Moreover, this study highlighted the importance of contextualizing emotion recognition within the lived experiences of children. Because a major portion of children’s early developmental years coincided with the period of mask-wearing measures, understanding how they adapted—or struggled to adapt—to these restrictions is crucial. Such knowledge can inform targeted interventions and educational strategies for enhancing children’s emotion recognition skills. Regarding educational recommendations on the basis this study, parents and educators must proactively teach and reinforce emotion recognition strategies—for example, by guiding children to use alternative cues such as body language, vocal tone, and situational context to interpret emotions. Providing opportunities for meaningful peer interactions can further enhance children’s ability to recognize and respond to others’emotions. Encouraging children to practice these skills in both masked and unmasked settings can equip them with a comprehensive toolkit for navigating social relationships. In conclusion, this study highlights the profound effect of prolonged mask-wearing measures on the development of children’s emotion recognition skills. It calls for collaborative efforts from parents, educators, and researchers to address these challenges and support children in cultivating robust emotion recognition skills that extend beyond the pandemic. The present study clarifies how children adapt to evolving social environments and offers practical guidance for fostering their emotional and social well-being.