Culture, ethnicity, and children's facial expressions: a study of European American, Mainland Chinese, Chinese American, and adopted Chinese girls.
This investigation extends previous research documenting differences in Chinese and European American infants' facial expressivity. Chinese girls adopted by European American families, nonadopted Mainland Chinese girls, nonadopted Chinese American girls, and nonadopted European American girls responded to emotionally evocative slides and an odor stimulus. European American girls smiled more than Mainland Chinese and Chinese American girls and scored higher than Mainland Chinese girls for disgust-related expressions and overall expressivity. Adopted Chinese girls produced more disgust-related expressions than Mainland Chinese girls. Self-reported maternal strictness, aggravation, positive expressiveness, and cultural identification correlated with children's facial responses, as did number of siblings and adults in the home. Results suggest that culture and family environment influences facial expressivity, creating differences among children of the same ethnicity.
Camras
Linda A
LA
Department of Psychology, DePaul University.
Bakeman
Roger
R
Department of Psychology, Georgia State University.
Chen
Yinghe
Y
Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University.
Norris
Katherine
K
Department of Psychology, DePaul University.
Cain
Thomas R
TR
Department of Psychology, DePaul University.
D000300:Adoption; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009812:Odorants; D016487:Parenting; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012931:Social Environment; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology