Normal emotion regulation in adults with cleft lip and palate: an exploratory study

Cleft lip and palate (CLP) represent the most common congenital malformations of the midfacial region. Although these patients show differences in their facial appearance, we hypothesize that CLP-affected individuals do not show an alteration in their emotion regulation abilities compared to unaffected individuals. This is because of the strong biological basis of facial emotion and expression that is inherent and receives little influence from external factors.

The present study evaluated various aspects of emotion regulation in 25 adults with CLP and an equally sized control group of unaffected volunteers. The study was divided into three parts. First, we investigated emotion regulation strategies. Here, each participant was asked to complete the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Ambivalence over Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire G 18 (AEQ-G18). Second, we examined the recognition of facially expressed basic emotions (FEEL test). Third, we evaluated the expression of an emotion induced by an odor sample.

Habitual emotion regulation, measured by ERQ and AEQ-G18, was not different between CLP and controls subjects for all of the sub-scales. Recognition of facially expressed basic emotions was also the same for both groups. Facial emotion encoding did not differ for both groups.

To summarize, the findings suggest that individuals with an orofacial cleft show undisturbed emotion regulation and recognition. This may be explained by the strong biological basis of facial emotion recognition and regulation as well as by the healthy emotional resilience and social functioning of CLP patients.