
Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents
- Author
- Sven Müller (UGent) , Cagla Unal, Michela Saretta (UGent) , Fadwa Al Mughairbi, Joana Gomez-Odriozola, Esther Calvete and Baris Metin
- Organization
- Abstract
- The number of adolescent refugees around the world has been continuously increasing over the past few years trying to escape war and terror, among other things. Such experience not only increases the risk for mental health problems including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but also may have implications for socio-cognitive development. This study tested cognitive-affective processing in refugee adolescents who had escaped armed conflict in Syria and now resided in Istanbul, Turkey. Adolescents were split into a high trauma (n = 31, 12 girls, mean age = 11.70 years, SD = 1.15 years) and low trauma (n = 27, 14 girls, mean age = 11.07 years, SD = 1.39 years) symptom group using median split, and performed a working memory task with emotional distraction to assess cognitive control and a surprise faces task to assess emotional interpretation bias. The results indicated that high (vs. low) trauma symptom youth were similar to 20% worse correctly remembering the spatial location of a cue, although both groups performed at very low levels. However, this finding was not modulated by emotion. In addition, although all youths also had a similar to 20% bias toward interpreting ambiguous (surprise) faces as more negative, the high (vs. low) symptom youth were faster when allocating such a face to the positive (vs. negative) emotion category. The findings suggest the impact of war-related trauma on cognitive-affective processes essential to healthy development.
- Keywords
- POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER, COGNITIVE CONTROL, ATTENTIONAL BIAS, TRAUMA, CHILDREN, ANXIETY, BRAIN, SCALE, DIFFICULTIES, EXPRESSIONS, War, Trauma, Adolescents, Refugee, Emotion, Working memory, interpretation bias
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8686955
- MLA
- Müller, Sven, et al. “Working Memory and Emotional Interpretation Bias in a Sample of Syrian Refugee Adolescents.” EUROPEAN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY, vol. 30, no. 12, 2021, pp. 1885–94, doi:10.1007/s00787-020-01656-8.
- APA
- Müller, S., Unal, C., Saretta, M., Al Mughairbi, F., Gomez-Odriozola, J., Calvete, E., & Metin, B. (2021). Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents. EUROPEAN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY, 30(12), 1885–1894. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01656-8
- Chicago author-date
- Müller, Sven, Cagla Unal, Michela Saretta, Fadwa Al Mughairbi, Joana Gomez-Odriozola, Esther Calvete, and Baris Metin. 2021. “Working Memory and Emotional Interpretation Bias in a Sample of Syrian Refugee Adolescents.” EUROPEAN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY 30 (12): 1885–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01656-8.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Müller, Sven, Cagla Unal, Michela Saretta, Fadwa Al Mughairbi, Joana Gomez-Odriozola, Esther Calvete, and Baris Metin. 2021. “Working Memory and Emotional Interpretation Bias in a Sample of Syrian Refugee Adolescents.” EUROPEAN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY 30 (12): 1885–1894. doi:10.1007/s00787-020-01656-8.
- Vancouver
- 1.Müller S, Unal C, Saretta M, Al Mughairbi F, Gomez-Odriozola J, Calvete E, et al. Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents. EUROPEAN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY. 2021;30(12):1885–94.
- IEEE
- [1]S. Müller et al., “Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents,” EUROPEAN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 1885–1894, 2021.
@article{8686955, abstract = {{The number of adolescent refugees around the world has been continuously increasing over the past few years trying to escape war and terror, among other things. Such experience not only increases the risk for mental health problems including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but also may have implications for socio-cognitive development. This study tested cognitive-affective processing in refugee adolescents who had escaped armed conflict in Syria and now resided in Istanbul, Turkey. Adolescents were split into a high trauma (n = 31, 12 girls, mean age = 11.70 years, SD = 1.15 years) and low trauma (n = 27, 14 girls, mean age = 11.07 years, SD = 1.39 years) symptom group using median split, and performed a working memory task with emotional distraction to assess cognitive control and a surprise faces task to assess emotional interpretation bias. The results indicated that high (vs. low) trauma symptom youth were similar to 20% worse correctly remembering the spatial location of a cue, although both groups performed at very low levels. However, this finding was not modulated by emotion. In addition, although all youths also had a similar to 20% bias toward interpreting ambiguous (surprise) faces as more negative, the high (vs. low) symptom youth were faster when allocating such a face to the positive (vs. negative) emotion category. The findings suggest the impact of war-related trauma on cognitive-affective processes essential to healthy development.}}, author = {{Müller, Sven and Unal, Cagla and Saretta, Michela and Al Mughairbi, Fadwa and Gomez-Odriozola, Joana and Calvete, Esther and Metin, Baris}}, issn = {{1018-8827}}, journal = {{EUROPEAN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY}}, keywords = {{POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER,COGNITIVE CONTROL,ATTENTIONAL BIAS,TRAUMA,CHILDREN,ANXIETY,BRAIN,SCALE,DIFFICULTIES,EXPRESSIONS,War,Trauma,Adolescents,Refugee,Emotion,Working memory,interpretation bias}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{12}}, pages = {{1885--1894}}, title = {{Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01656-8}}, volume = {{30}}, year = {{2021}}, }
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