Decoding Basic and Non-basic Facial Expressions and Depressive Symptoms in Late Childhood and Adolescence

This study examined the relationship between decoding nonverbal cues and depressive symptoms in a general school population of 606 children and adolescents (9–15 years). The focus was on the perceived intensity of several emotions in both basic and non-basic facial expressions. The perceived intensities of anger and joy in low intensity facial expressions were related to depression. The higher the perceived intensity of anger the more depressed adolescents were, whereas the reversed effect was found for the perception of joy, but only in girls. These results suggest that the development of decoding biases in low intensity facial expressions may be useful for understanding the development of individual and gender differences in depression during adolescence.