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Maltreated Children's Ability to Make Temporal Judgments Using a Recurring Landmark Event
Kelly McWilliams1, Thomas D Lyon1, Jodi A Quas2
11 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
|April 24, 2016
Summary
Maltreated children struggled to accurately place past events relative to their birthdays. They showed a bias towards future birthdays, potentially misinterpreting event timing due to landmark ambiguity.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Trauma Studies
Background:
- Maltreated children often face disrupted life events.
- Understanding event sequencing is crucial for cognitive development.
- Landmark events, like birthdays, are used to anchor memories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess maltreated children's ability to judge event order and location relative to a recurring landmark (birthday).
- To investigate potential biases in temporal judgments among maltreated youth.
Main Methods:
- 167 maltreated children (ages 6-10) were surveyed.
- Participants indicated if key events (court visits, placement changes) were 'near' or 'before/after' their birthday.
- Focus on temporal judgment accuracy and landmark event reference.
Main Results:
- Children demonstrated some accuracy when birthdays were less than 3 months away.
- Sensitivity to past birthdays was significantly lower than to future birthdays.
- A clear prospective bias was observed, favoring future temporal references.
Conclusions:
- Maltreated children may exhibit a prospective bias in temporal event judgments.
- Recurring landmark events can be referentially ambiguous, leading to misinterpretations.
- This bias can impact the accurate reconstruction of personal timelines for maltreated children.
