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Emotion processing and social participation following stroke

This thesis explores the links between emotion processing and social participation in the acute and chronic phases of stroke. Three aspects of emotion processing are examined: 1) Emotion Perception 2) Emotion Regulation 3) Depression and Anxiety. Social Participation refers to engagement in life situations including a range of social activities and social networks. Stroke survivors are known to experience a reduction in social participation, independently of activity limitations. The current research tests the hypothesis that impairments in any of the aspects of emotion processing may affect social participation. Previous research has established that following stroke, difficulties in emotion perception and depression and anxiety occur, but there is little research on post stroke emotion regulation difficulties. While the link between post stroke depression and anxiety and social participation has been explored, this is not the case with emotion perception or emotion regulation. In a pilot study, emotion processing and social participation measures were administered to stroke patients. Emotion processing difficulties were shown to occur in stroke survivors and were significantly correlated with social participation. In the main study participants’ emotion processing, social participation and activity limitations were assessed at 2 and 18 months post stroke. In the acute phase, all three aspects of emotion processing correlated with social participation, but only emotion regulation predicted social participation restrictions independently of activity limitations. In the chronic phase, emotion processing correlated with social participation, with emotion regulation and depression predicting social participation independently of activity limitations. Further analyses revealed acute phase problems with emotion perception predicted chronic phase social participation limitations, while acute phase social participation restrictions predicted chronic phase depression and emotion regulation. These findings highlight the importance of the links between emotion processing and social participation post stroke. Future research priorities in this field are outlined.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:531911
Date January 2010
CreatorsScott, Clare
PublisherUniversity of Aberdeen
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=158463

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