For children between 3 and 5 years old it is difficult to understand the emotions that hide under the masks: they can only do it 40% of the time.
This is indicated by the first research on the subject conducted by the Italian Institute of Technology, under the guidance of Monica Gori and published in Frontiers in Psychology, which suggests the need for measures to avoid a problem that could influence the correct social development of the new generations.
Already months ago the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef had advised against the use of masks in contexts where children under 5 are involved, since important emotional skills develop in that age group.
To investigate the topic more in depth, the researchers prepared a questionnaire containing images of people with and without masks. The test was completed by 119 subjects including 31 children between the ages of 3 and 5, 49 children between the ages of 6 and 8 and 39 adults between the ages of 18 and 30.
The subjects, independently or with the assistance of their parents in the case of the younger ones, had to try to recognize the expressions of the faces, with and without a surgical mask, which expressed different emotions such as: joy, sadness, fear and anger.
The results showed that children between 3 and 5 years are able to recognize facial expressions covered by masks only 40% of the time while the percentages rise with increasing age: 55-65% between 6 and 8 years, 70-80% among adults.
"The experiment was conducted in the very early stages of the pandemic in 2020, the masks were then still a novelty for everyone. We hope that today the children have been able to adapt", specified Monica Gori. Finally, the study suggests evaluating the use of transparent masks for all operators in contact with the 3-5 year age group or the design of specific training courses to teach children to recognize emotions only through the observation of eyes.