Cognitive And Affective Theory Of Mind As Mechanisms Explaining The Association Of Threat And Deprivation With Psychopathology - Info and Reading Options

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Children with early adverse experiences are at heightened risk for the onset of psychopathology during adolescence (McLaughlin et al., 2012). Different dimensions of childhood adversity, namely experiences of threat and deprivation, may have distinct influences on cognitive, affective, and neural development (McLaughlin et al., 2014). Heightened threat detection – an adaptation that may protect the individual from future harm – is a social information processing mechanism that has been identified as a key pathway linking experiences of threat with psychopathology (Mclaughlin et al., 2020). Past work in this area suggests that basic social cognitive/affective abilities such as Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to understand the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of others— may also play a role in the link between experiences of threat and the onset of psychopathology. Violence exposure during childhood, a form of threat-related adversity, is associated with poorer performance on ToM tasks (Cicchetti et al., 2003; O’Reilly & Peterson, 2015; Pears & Fisher, 2005). Furthermore, there is some evidence that severe experiences of early deprivation, such as institutionalization, are also associated with poorer performance on ToM tasks (Colvert et al., 2008). However, one previous study from our lab did not find an association between economic deprivation and ToM despite the high degree of deprivation experienced by the sample in that study (Heleniak & McLaughlin, 2020). This study showed children with experiences of threat demonstrated greater difficulty in ToM tasks. Moreover, this study also showed that alterations in both cognitive and affective ToM were mechanisms that may contribute to risk for externalizing problems among children who have experienced threat. This preregistration seeks to extend these findings by examining behavioral performance during cognitive and affective ToM in a longitudinal sample of pre-adolescents aged 11 to 12 years. First, we will investigate to what degree threat-related adversity during childhood is associated with ToM performance. Furthermore, we will explore whether ToM is a mechanism explaining the association of threat with externalizing symptoms concurrently and over time. ToM refers to the ability to infer another person’s thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and feelings (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985; Perner, 1991; Wellman, 1992). ToM includes both a cognitive component that encompasses comprehension of another's thoughts, intentions, and beliefs, and an affective component that involves comprehension of another’s feelings and emotions (Sebastian et al., 2012). Early childhood exposure to threat-related adversity, such as interpersonal and family violence has been shown to influence information processing styles in ways that increase attunement to social threat (McLaughlin & Lambert, 2017; Pollak et al., 2000; Pollak & Kistler, 2002; Pollak & Sinha, 2002; Pollak & Tolley-Schell, 2003; Shackman & Pollak, 2005; Shackman et al., 2007). Youths exposed to threat-related adversity are more likely to attribute hostile intentions to others’ behavior than their non-exposed counterparts (Dodge et al., 1995; Dodge et al., 1990; Weiss et al., 1992). Moreover, exposure to threat-related adversity in childhood is also a strong predictor of externalizing problems later in life (Bingenheimer et al., 2005; Dodge et al., 1990; McCloskey & Lichter, 2003; Widom, 1989). Therefore, it is possible that aspects of ToM are also influenced by experiences of threat in early childhood and that ToM could serve as a mechanism linking experiences of threat with externalizing problems. As children living in more violent and turbulent environments need to focus on and prioritize safety and determination of threat, this may impact the way that they evaluate the thoughts, beliefs, and intentions of others. As a result, children living in violent environments may have fewer opportunities to consider the full range of internal experiences of others, hindering the development of theory of mind. Failure to perceive and anticipate negative internal states in others could lead to the presence of externalizing problems. This is consistent with previous work showing children who have experienced threat exhibit lower performance on tasks assessing cognitive and affective theory of mind than children who have never experienced threat (Barahal et al., 1981; Burack et al., 2006; Cicchetti et al., 2003; O’Reilly & Peterson, 2015; Pears & Fisher, 2005). Furthermore, there is also evidence showing ToM is a pathway linking experiences of threat with externalizing problems (Heleniak & McLaughlin, 2020). Deprivation involving a reduction in social and cognitive stimulation that occus in the context of caregiver interactions, could also lead to disruption of social information processes such as ToM. Reductions in the frequency of interactions with caregivers would entail fewer opportunities for the cognitive stimulation and social interactions that contribute to ToM. Indeed, severe forms of deprivation, such as institutionalization, are associated with impaired ToM (Colvert et al., 2008). However, little work has been done to explore the extent to which less severe forms of deprivation during childhood are associated with ToM. Surprisingly, one study found that young adults with depression who had experienced neglect tended to have better performance on a ToM task compared to controls (Rnic, el al., 2018). Another study found that physical deprivation was not significantly associated with ToM after accounting for threat (Heleniak & McLaughlin, 2020). Observed associations between deprivation and ToM are therefore inconsistent. Despite evidence of the development of cognitive and affective ToM throughout adolescence, very few studies have addressed the associations between experiences of threat and cognitive and affective theory of mind during early adolescence (Sebastian et al., 2012). The data for the present preregistration have been collected, but not analyzed. This study examines the hypothesis that cognitive and affective ToM is a mechanism linking experiences of threat with externalizing symptoms. The study uses a community sample of pre-adolescents from diverse socioeconomic status backgrounds who vary in levels of both threat and deprivation experiences who were followed longitudinally over time.

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