Exploring the Role of COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Changes in Social Interactions on Preschoolers' Emotion Labelling

The current COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed people’s social life: People communicate via video calls, keep distance when encountering each other and in general reduce the number of people they meet in person. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended wearing facial masks as part of the strategy to slow down the spread. Not only adults but also children have to adapt to these different ways of interacting with others. In particular, children increasingly face situations in which parents, caregivers, and other people in their environment are obligated to wear facial masks. Various media reports debate the question of whether and how wearing masks impacts children’s emotional face recognition. So far, empirical evidence is insufficient to answer this question. Therefore, in this project, we seek to understand children’s emotional face recognition and how it is influenced by the increased time children interact with individuals wearing facial masks.

当前的新冠疫情极大地改变了人们的社会生活：人们通过视频通话进行沟通，在相遇时保持距离，并且在总体上减少了面对面相遇的人数。此外，世界卫生组织（WHO）建议佩戴口罩作为减缓疫情传播策略的一部分。不仅成年人，就连儿童也必须适应这些与他人互动的不同方式。特别是，儿童越来越面临父母、照料者以及其他周围人士被迫佩戴口罩的情境。各种媒体报道了佩戴口罩是否以及如何影响儿童情绪面部识别的问题。迄今为止，关于这一问题的实证证据尚不充分。因此，在本项目中，我们旨在理解儿童的情绪面部识别以及它如何受到与佩戴口罩者互动时间增加的影响。