Emotion recognition and processing style in children with an intellectual disability
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Emotion recognition and processing style in children with an intellectual disability

Karen McKenzie Professor of psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
George Murray Clinical psychologist, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, Scotland
Aja Murray Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
Kathryn Whelan Psychologist, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
Jill Cossar Clinical psychologist, NHS Tayside, Dundee, Scotland
Kara Murray Mental health nurse, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, Scotland
Jennifer Scotland Clinical psychologist, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, Scotland

Aim People with an intellectual disability generally have poorer emotion recognition than their typically developing peers, but there is limited research on how this might be influenced by processing style. This study aimed to explore this.

Methods Children with an intellectual disability (n=45) and without (n=57) an intellectual disability completed an emotion recognition naming task and a processing style task. A path mediation model was used to evaluate whether having an intellectual disability predicted poorer emotion recognition and if this was mediated by a local processing style.

Results While children with an intellectual disability were significantly less accurate at emotion recognition, having a local processing preference was not a significant factor.

Conclusion The findings may help nurses involved in developing, delivering and evaluating interventions to improve the emotion recognition of people with an intellectual disability.

Learning Disability Practice. doi: 10.7748/ldp.2019.e1982

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

k.mckenzie@northumbria.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

McKenzie K, Murray G, Murray A et al (2019) Emotion recognition and processing style in children with an intellectual disability. Learning Disability Practice. doi:10.7748/ldp.2019.e1982

Published online: 20 May 2019

Want to read more?

Already subscribed? Log in

OR

Unlock full access to RCNi Plus today

Save over 50% on your first 3 months

Your subscription package includes:
  • Unlimited online access to all 10 RCNi Journals and their archives
  • Customisable dashboard featuring 200+ topics
  • RCNi Learning featuring 180+ RCN accredited learning modules
  • RCNi Portfolio to build evidence for revalidation
  • Personalised newsletters tailored to your interests
Subscribe
RCN student member? Try Nursing Standard Student

Alternatively, you can purchase access to this article for the next seven days. Buy now

Or