Are Socially Relevant Scenes Abnormally Processed in Complex Trauma-Exposed Children?

Autores de IIS La Fe

• Clara Berto Garcia

  Autor

• Belén Almansa Tomás

  Autor

• Lorenzo Livianos Aldana

  Autor

• Luis Miguel Rojo Moreno

  Autor

• Manuel Barbera Alacreu

  Autor

• 

  Ana Cristina García Blanco

  Autor

Participantes ajenos a IIS La Fe

• Ferrín M

Grupos

• Investigación en Salud Mental

Abstract

Abnormal attentional processes to socially relevant information may underlie behavioral dysfunctional symptoms in children exposed to a complex trauma. Attentional biases to social scenes close to real-world situations and their association with behavioral symptomatology were examined in complex trauma-exposed children. A visual dot-probe task involving neutral versus emotional (i.e., threatening, sad, or happy) scenes was applied to twenty-one maltreated children (mean age 10.43; 42.8% female; 61.1% White). These children were exposed to a complex trauma (i.e., severe, repeated, multiple, prolonged, and interpersonal) and were safeguarded in a juvenile welfare home after all parental responsibility was removed. Twenty-four comparable non-maltreated children (mean age 10.13; 29.2% female; 76% White), served as control group. All participants were at risk of social exclusion and every legal representative completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Complex trauma-exposed children showed an attentional bias toward threatening scenes, while the control group showed an attentional bias toward sad scenes. There were no differences for happy scenes between groups. Attentional bias toward threatening scenes was associated with withdrawn symptoms in complex trauma-exposed children. Children exposed to a complex trauma show an abnormal attention to threatening social situations, which can trigger maladaptive behaviors such as withdrawn. The understanding of how complex trauma-exposed children process affective environmental information may provide new targets in the social skills interventions such as diminishing maladaptive behaviors and improving coping strategies to face threatening situations.

© The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

• Attentional bias; Childhood; Complex trauma; Emotion; Maltreatment