Decision-making deficits among maltreated children

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Child Welfare

Background:

• Maltreated children often display health-risking behaviors.
• Neurocognitive and emotional regulation delays in maltreated children may impair decision-making under risk.
• Previous research treated risky decision-making as a general construct.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate decision-making processes in maltreated children within gain and loss contexts.
• To compare decision-making in maltreated children versus a non-maltreated control group.
• To identify specific deficits in risk assessment and outcome evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Compared decision-making in maltreated children (n=25) and a non-maltreated group (n=112).
• Assessed choices in scenarios involving potential gains and potential losses.
• Analyzed response latencies and sensitivity to expected value and outcome magnitude.

Main Results:

• Maltreated children demonstrated decision-making impairments in both gain and loss domains, more so in losses.
• They exhibited excessive risk-taking and insensitivity to expected value changes.
• Slower decision times in maltreated children suggested distinct underlying cognitive processes.

Conclusions:

• Maltreated children show significant deficits in risk assessment and decision-making, particularly when potential losses are involved.
• These impairments are linked to insensitivity to outcome magnitude and slower cognitive processing.
• Findings have implications for understanding and intervening in the behavior of children in child welfare services.