Memories of Parental Rejection in Childhood and Current Psychological Maladjustment Predict Men's Problems Recognising Facial Expressions of Emotion

This study investigated whether men's memories of parental rejection in childhood affect their ability to recognise facial expressions of six basic emotions, possibly mediated by their current psychological maladjustment. Participants, including 350 men (M_age = 28.29, SD = 5.69) responded to the mother and father short forms of the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) and the Adult Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ). They also completed the Facially Expressed Emotion Labelling Test. Results showed that the more rejected the men felt they had been in childhood by their mothers and fathers, and the more psychologically maladjusted they reported themselves to be at the current time, the more difficulty they had correctly identifying facial expressions of emotion. Further, results indicated that perceived maternal and paternal rejection, and psychological maladjustment, each predicted significant variations in the ability of men to recognise different facial expressions of emotion and predicted longer average reaction times to recognise facial expressions of emotions.