Investigating the neurodevelopmental mediators of aggression in children with a history of child maltreatment:An exploratory field study

ABSTRACT

Maltreatment of children is a chronic community problem that increases the risk of future aggression. Despite several decades of research highlighting this relationship, few studies have explored the potential neuropsychological deficits that are likely to mediate it. This exploratory study aimed to examine how child maltreatment may be associated with aggression via impairment in the developing prefrontal-limbic-autonomic pathways that are implicated in neuropsychological models of aggression. Furthermore, it aimed to investigate the relationship between child maltreatment and both reactive and proactive aggression subtypes. To investigate this non-invasively in an at-risk population, children with a documented protective care history (n = 20) and a community control group (n = 30), aged between 6 and 12 years, were compared on measures of cardiovascular functioning, affect regulation and cognitive functioning aligned with this neuropsychological model. Whilst no group differences were found on cardiovascular functioning (i.e., resting heart rate, heart rate reactivity, heart rate variability), the protective care group performed significantly worse on measures of affect regulation and cognitive functioning (i.e., global intelligence, executive functioning, smell identification and social cognition). The relationship between child maltreatment and aggression was mediated by executive dysfunction and affect dysregulation but not global IQ, social cognition or olfactory identification. The results suggest that interventions targeting aggression in maltreated children will benefit from clinical assessment and psychological strategies that address the executive dysfunction and affect dysregulation that has been associated with this clinical outcome.

KEYWORDS:

• Child maltreatment
• Child trauma
• Aggression
• Neurodevelopment
• Executive dysfunction

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of the Victorian Department of Human Services, Child Protection and the non-government community service organizations that supported this research through consultation, governance and data collection. We would also like to acknowledge the support of the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre in providing hardware, software and consultation to administer the Vivometrics LifeShirt device. This research would not have been possible without the interest, acceptance, generosity and commitment of parents and caregivers, schoolteachers, and the children who participated. We sincerely thank them for their time and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council [GNT1079478 (2015-2019)]; the University of Melbourne; and the Victorian Government Operational Infrastructure Scheme.