Emotion recognition as a function of social competence and depressed mood in individuals with intellectual disability

The present study was designed to test whether social competence and mood were predictive of the performance by adults with mild or moderate intellectual disability on a matching-to-sample task using facially expressed emotions as stimuli. Thirty-eight subjects were assigned to either a depressed mood group or a non-depressed mood group based on their scores on the two depression sub-scales of the Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior. The groups were matched on sex, age and level of intellectual disability. Each group consisted of 10 women and nine men; 12 participants in each group had mild and seven had moderate intellectual disability, respectively. Social competence was assessed with the Social Performance Survey Schedule (SPSS). Performance on the matching-to-sample task correlated positively with the subjects' level of intellectual disability, their mood scores and the scores on the Appropriate Skills sub-scale of the SPSS. The implications of these findings for social skills training programmes and limitations of this study are discussed.