{"id":2000127599,"date":"2026-09-30T15:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000127599"},"modified":"2026-09-30T15:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:45:16","slug":"study-finds-children-at-risk-of-depression-pay-more-attention-to-sad-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/study-finds-children-at-risk-of-depression-pay-more-attention-to-sad-faces\/","title":{"rendered":"Study finds children at risk of depression pay more attention to sad faces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The research examined how children’s attention to emotional expressions changes alongside depressive symptoms over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists found that the relationship was different depending on whether the children’s mothers had a history of major depressive disorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers from Binghamton University’s Mood Disorders Institute followed 242 children and their mothers for two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participants were assessed every six months, allowing the researchers to examine whether changes in children’s attention to emotional faces were connected to later changes in depressive symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the assessments, children viewed pairs of faces on a computer screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One face had a neutral expression while the other showed happiness, sadness or anger. Eye-tracking technology was used to measure which face attracted the children’s attention and how long they looked at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous research has linked depression with greater attention to sad faces, but scientists have not been certain about the direction of the relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has remained unclear whether paying more attention to negative emotional information contributes to depression or whether depressive symptoms cause changes in attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new study attempted to examine both possibilities by looking at how attention patterns and depressive symptoms predicted each other across different time points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers described this two-way relationship as an important part of the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among children whose mothers had a history of major depressive disorder, increasing depressive symptoms were associated with greater attention to sad faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As their symptoms increased, these children appeared to have more difficulty shifting their attention away from expressions of sadness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers suggested that children who already have a higher familial risk of depression may become particularly sensitive to sadness when they experience depressive symptoms themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A different pattern appeared among children whose mothers had no history of major depression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When depressive symptoms increased in this group, the children did not show greater attention to sad faces. Instead, they paid less attention to happy expressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers said this may indicate that depression can affect emotional attention through different pathways depending on a child’s underlying level of familial risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team is continuing to follow the children as they enter adolescence, a period when the risk of depression increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers hope to determine whether the attention patterns identified in childhood are associated with depression diagnoses later in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Researchers used eye-tracking technology to study how children’s attention to happy, sad and neutral faces changes alongside depressive symptoms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children experiencing increasing depressive symptoms may become more focused on sad facial expressions, particularly when they have a family history of depression, according to a new study from Binghamton University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":2000127607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[151,69],"byline":[201],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000127599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-editors-choice","tag-homehighlights","byline-rania-umutoni"],"bylines":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"contributors":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":2000122457,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.00.00-PM.jpeg","title":"WhatsApp Image 2026-08-14 at 12.00.00 PM","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"},"user_id":139}],"featured_image":{"id":2000127607,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/ChatGPT-Image-Sep-30-2026-12_58_34-PM.png","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/png","width":1672,"height":941,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/ChatGPT-Image-Sep-30-2026-12_58_34-PM.png","width":1672,"height":941},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/ChatGPT-Image-Sep-30-2026-12_58_34-PM.png","width":1672,"height":941},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/ChatGPT-Image-Sep-30-2026-12_58_34-PM.png","width":1672,"height":941},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/ChatGPT-Image-Sep-30-2026-12_58_34-PM.png","width":1672,"height":941},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.igihe.com\/en\/2026\/09\/ChatGPT-Image-Sep-30-2026-12_58_34-PM.png","width":1672,"height":941}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000127599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000127599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000127599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000127631,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000127599\/revisions\/2000127631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000127607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000127599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000127599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000127599"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000127599"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000127599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}