Age Discrimination In Young Dysmorphic Face

The earliest stages of human development are some of the most delicate and critical (prenatal to late childhood), requiring great care and attention by older humans (young adults to seniors). As such, much focus must be placed on the quality of care these toddlers and young children receive, both to understand factors affecting the level of care and how to better it if it is somehow lacking. The focus of this paper is on the relationship between age discrimination in young dysmorphic faces and their perceived attractiveness. The importance of this research rests with being able to inform and address practices regarding the care of young children, especially those with facial anomalies or deformities.
Previous research has demonstrated that there are differences in the care of children, specifically between children who display dysmorphic facial features as compared to faces that are normal. In one study, researchers found that while a mother rated their interactions with their newborn as being positive, independent observation of mother-infant interactions showed that the quality of interactions suffered for babies with facial deformities as compared to those with normal faces (Barden, Ford, Jensen, Rogers-Salyer, & Salyer, 1989). The
By measuring the accuracy of participants’ perception of aging in sets of faces, some with normal faces and other with the dysmorphic features of Apert syndrome (sunken faces; tall, flat foreheads and prominent brows, eyes widely spaced, and under-bites) the rate of accuracy for the estimation of aging among the faces can be compared between dysmorphic and nondysmorphic faces. It’s hypothesized that participants will more accurately rate aging in nondysmorphic faces as compared to dysmorphic faces because of the perceived level of attractiveness in nondysmorphic faces as compared to dysmorphic