Maltreatment and Advanced Theory of Mind Development in School-aged Children

Abstract

Theory of mind (ToM), the understanding of people's beliefs and states of mind underpins effective communication and social relationships throughout life. Plausibly, the experience of being maltreated could delay the child's development of ToM. However empirical evidence for this is scanty, especially in children age five and over. The present study aimed to fill this void. 105 Australian children were tested on first-and second-order false belief tests and a developmentallysequenced ToM Scale. Of this sample, 52 children had experienced maltreatment and were receiving therapy and 53 children were matched nonclinic controls. As predicted, controls outperformed the maltreated on first-order changed-locations, misleading container false belief tests, and on an advanced belief-emotion test. Furthermore, maltreatment severity was an independent negative predictor of ToM understanding after controlling other variables. Findings reveal the persistence of problems in understanding others' minds for maltreated children with implications both for social cognition and for applied interventions.

Multidirectional Pathways between Attachment, Mentalizing, and Posttraumatic Stress Symptomatology in the Context of Childhood Trauma

“…A direct effect of childhood trauma on mentalizing was also identified in the current study. The result is in line with previous findings [13,[16][17][18][19][20] indicating that early trauma may weaken mentalizing abilities. Individuals with poorer mentalizing may perceive the mental states of others as threatening [15].…”

“…This prevents traumatized individuals from effectively using social support to manage trauma and may contribute to poor posttraumatic adjustment and thus higher levels of PTSD symptomatology [12]. There is emerging evidence to indicate mentalizing failures in traumatized individuals, including lower emotional understanding [17], delayed onset of theory of mind [18], and increased difficulties in mentalizing [13,19,20]. Among survivors of childhood trauma, compromised mentalizing further acts as a risk factor for severe psychopathology such as personality disorders [21], as well as depressive symptoms and externalizing and sexualized behaviours [14,22], indicating that mentalizing can be considered a mediator of the relationship between trauma and posttraumatic symptomatology.…”

How do thoughts, emotions, and decisions align? A new way to examine theory of mind during middle childhood and beyond

“…Samples that differ by race, ethnicity, family education level, or exposure to stressful events may respond differently. For example, maltreated children show lower emotion understanding (Pears & Fisher, 2005), delayed development of ToM (Cicchetti, Rogosch, Maughan, Toth, & Bruce, 2003; O’Reilly & Peterson, 2015), greater attention to threat cues, and higher anxiety (see Cicchetti & Ng, 2014; Shackman, Shackman, & Pollak, 2007). Therefore, doing a similar study in populations who have experienced trauma could reveal how life experiences shape how children and adults think about interrelations among thoughts, emotions, and decisions.…”

An open trial of equine-assisted therapy for children exposed to problematic parental substance use

“…). Furthermore, the trauma associated with the exposure to inconsistent parenting and neglect early in life, known as early relational trauma (Goldfinch ), is linked to myriad developmental deficits in children (O'Reilly & Peterson ) ranging from emotional, cognitive, social and behavioural problems (Peleg‐Oren & Teichman ). Children exposed to PPSU demonstrate maladaptive affect regulation, poorer cognitive development, attachment difficulties, low self‐esteem, poor self‐concept integration and lower levels of behavioural control (Kroll , Cook et al .…”

“…Evidence suggests that problematic alcohol and other drug use can impede parenting capacity (Rhodes et al 2010) by adversely affecting attachment (Kroll 2004), consistency of parenting (Cattapan & Grimwade 2008), attunement with, and sensitivity to children's emotional needs and the stability of the home environment (Dawe et al 2008, Tsantefski et al 2013). Furthermore, the trauma associated with the exposure to inconsistent parenting and neglect early in life, known as early relational trauma (Goldfinch 2009), is linked to myriad developmental deficits in children (O'Reilly & Peterson 2015) ranging from emotional, cognitive, social and behavioural problems (Peleg-Oren & Teichman 2006). Children exposed to PPSU demonstrate maladaptive affect regulation, poorer cognitive development, attachment difficulties, low self-esteem, poor selfconcept integration and lower levels of behavioural control (Kroll 2004, Cook et al 2005.…”