New research from Binghamton University reveals that children’s attention to emotional faces varies with depression risk and family history, offering insights into early detection and intervention.
A child’s eye movements may reveal more than first appears. New research from Binghamton University suggests that depression can change how children attend to emotional faces, but the pattern is not the same for every child and appears to depend on family history.
The study, carried out at the university’s Mood Disorders Institute, followed 242 children and their mothers over two years, with assessments every six months. Using eye-tracking, researchers measured which of two faces held a child’s attention longer: a neutral expression or one showing happiness, sadness or anger. The aim was to understand whether changes in attention might help explain how depression develops in childhood and adolescence.
According to the findings reported by Binghamton University and later summarised by ScienceDaily, children at higher familial risk, including those whose mothers had a history of major depressive disorder, tended to look more at sad faces as their own depressive symptoms increased. Brandon Gibb, director of the Mood Disorders Institute and a professor of psychology at SUNY, said the work matters because many vulnerabilities are still taking shape during this period, making it possible to study them before they become fixed.
The pattern was different for children at lower risk. In those whose mothers did not have a depression history, rising depressive symptoms were linked not to a stronger pull towards sadness, but to a reduced focus on happy faces. Kelly Gair, the study’s lead author, said the team was examining a “transactional” relationship, meaning that attention and depressive symptoms may influence one another over time rather than moving in only one direction.
The researchers say the results suggest two possible routes through which depression may shape children’s emotional attention: by making sad expressions harder to ignore for some, and by weakening the pull of positive expressions for others. They are now continuing to follow the children into adolescence, when the risk of depression rises sharply, to see whether these early attention patterns can help predict later diagnosis. The study was published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
