Article
Culture, Ethnicity, and Children’s Facial Expressions: A Study of European American, Mainland Chinese, Chinese American, and Adopted Chinese Girls
Emotion
(2006)
Abstract
This investigation extends previous research documenting differences in Chinese and European American
infants’ facial expressivity. Chinese girls adopted by European American families, nonadopted
Mainland Chinese girls, nonadopted Chinese American girls, and nonadopted European American girls
responded to emotionally evocative slides and an odor stimulus. European American girls smiled more
than Mainland Chinese and Chinese American girls and scored higher than Mainland Chinese girls for
disgust-related expressions and overall expressivity. Adopted Chinese girls produced more disgustrelated
expressions than Mainland Chinese girls. Self-reported maternal strictness, aggravation, positive
expressiveness, and cultural identification correlated with children’s facial responses, as did number of
siblings and adults in the home. Results suggest that culture and family environment influences facial
expressivity, creating differences among children of the same ethnicity.
Keywords
- culture,
- facial expression,
- Chinese,
- international adoption
Disciplines
Publication Date
2006
DOI
10.1037/1528-3542.6.1.103
Citation Information
Linda A. Camras, Yinghe Chen, Roger Bakeman, Katherine Norris, et al.. "Culture, Ethnicity, and Children’s Facial Expressions: A Study of European American, Mainland Chinese, Chinese American, and Adopted Chinese Girls" Emotion Vol. 6 Iss. 1 (2006) p. 103 - 114 ISSN: 1528-3542 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/linda_camras/34/