How are these people feeling?

For 4- to 7-year olds

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! This study involves five scheduled sessions over the year, each session 2 months apart. To schedule the first session, click on the “Schedule a time to participate” button to see an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you.

In this study, your child will first answer some questions about how they have been feeling and thinking recently. They will then play a game with the researcher in which they see pictures or videos of people and will be asked how they are feeling. We will also ask you, the caregiver, some questions about your family and life experiences. These will include questions about significant events experienced by the family, family routines and day-to-day functioning, and current mood and stress levels.

We are interested in understanding how children's own emotional states influence how they perceive emotional information in other people. Everyone needs to be able to detect and recognize emotions in others to build and maintain social relationships. In both adults and children, feeling happy, calm, stressed, or lonely can influence how they recognize emotions in others. However, it is not clear exactly how this occurs. In this study, we hope to clarify some of these findings by looking more generally at how feelings like loneliness influence positive and negative ratings of faces. A better understanding of this could aid in developing supports for children at risk of high levels of loneliness.

5 sessions over the next 12 months; each session is 45 minutes.

You will receive a $10 Amazon.com gift card for your participation in each session. If you complete all five sessions, you will receive an additional $10 bonus payment (in the form of an Amazon.com Gift Card), resulting in up to a total payment of $60 in Amazon.com Gift Cards. To be eligible for the gift card, your child must be in the age range for this study, you need to submit a valid consent statement, and your child needs to be visible on screen throughout the study. But we will send a gift card even if you do not finish the whole study or if we are not able to use your child's data! Gift cards will be sent via e-mail within one week of study completion.