Improving Emotion Recognition Ability to Support Social Development in Children: A Quasi-Experimental Study (I4C)

University of Foggia

Status: Completed

Conditions: Nonverbal Communication; Emotions; Facial Emotion Recognition; Antisocial Behavior; Intelligence

Treatments: Behavioral: Emotion Recognition Training Program: A structured school-based intervention designed to enhance children's ability to recognize emotions through facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.; Behavioral: No Intervention: Observational Cohort

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07097090

43681

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this quasi-experimental study is to investigate whether enhancing emotion recognition abilities can improve social behavior in primary school children. The study focused on children aged approximately 6 to 9 years (both sexes), attending elementary school, without neurological or psychiatric diagnoses.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Is there an inverse relationship between children's ability to recognize nonverbal emotional cues and antisocial behavior, as assessed by teachers?

Does nonverbal intelligence (measured through Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices) significantly predict emotion recognition ability (ERA)?

Researchers compared a group of children who received the intervention (experimental group) with a control group that did not, to see whether improvements in ERA relate to higher prosocial behavior and fewer behavioral difficulties.

Participants were asked to:

Complete the DANVA-2-RV, a standardized tool to assess nonverbal emotion recognition, updated and validated on the study sample;

Complete Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices, to measure nonverbal IQ;

Have their behavior assessed via the SDQ - Teacher Version, filled out by their classroom teachers.

A total of 140 children from four schools were enrolled. Participants were assigned non-randomly to an experimental or control group. Six teachers were involved in the behavioral assessments.

The study is concluded. Expected outcomes include:

A negative correlation between prosocial behavior and emotional confusion;

A weak or non-significant relationship between nonverbal intelligence and emotion recognition ability.

Enrollment: 140 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 4 to 5 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Children enrolled in primary school (ages 6-9)
• Parental/guardian informed consent obtained
• Teacher agreement to complete SDQ - Teacher Version
• Availability for participation in both pre- and post-assessment sessions
• No diagnosed cognitive, psychiatric, or neurological disorders

Exclusion criteria

• Documented diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ASD, ADHD, intellectual disability)
• Severe visual, auditory, or motor impairments affecting test participation
• Incomplete parental consent or teacher refusal to collaborate
• Absence from school during key phases of assessment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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140 participants in 2 patient groups

Emotion Recognition Training Group

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Emotion Recognition Training Program: A structured school-based intervention designed to enhance children's ability to recognize emotions through facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.

No Intervention Control Group

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Behavioral: No Intervention: Observational Cohort