Decision-Making Deficits Among Maltreated Children

dc.contributor.authorWeller, J. A., & Fisher, P. A.
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-19T15:23:30Z
dc.date.available2014-08-19T15:23:30Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractAlthough maltreated children involved with child welfare services are known to exhibit elevated levels of health-risking behaviors, little is known about their decision-making processes leading to these behaviors. Research findings suggest that maltreated children exhibit developmental delays in neurocognitive and emotional regulation systems that could adversely impact their abilities to make decisions under conditions of risk. Whereas prior researchers have examined risky decision making as a global construct, maltreated children’s decision making was examined in two contexts in the present study: potential gains and potential losses. Comparing maltreated children (n = 25) and a nonmaltreated community group (n = 112), it was found that the maltreated children showed decision-making impairments for both domains: This impairment was especially prominent in the loss domain. The maltreated children took excessive risks and were insensitive to changes in expected value. Follow-up analyses revealed that these differences were primarily associated with insensitivity to changes in outcome magnitude for the risky option. Finally, response latency analyses indicated that the maltreated children were slower to make choices, reinforcing underlying differences in decision processes between groups. These results have implications for basic and translational science. (Author Abstract)en_US
dc.identifier.citationWeller, J. A., & Fisher, P. A. (2012). Decision-making deficits among maltreated children. Child maltreatment, 18(3):184-194.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3737421/pdf/nihms448488.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/1650
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherChild Maltreatmenten_US
dc.subjectchild abuseen_US
dc.subjectrisk takingen_US
dc.subjectdecision makingen_US
dc.subjectchild welfareen_US
dc.subjectlong term effectsen_US
dc.subjectresearchen_US
dc.titleDecision-Making Deficits Among Maltreated Childrenen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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