A Systematic Review of the Evidence for Impaired Cognitive Theory of Mind in Maltreated Children.
Compared to the large number of studies exploring difficulties in emotion recognition in maltreated children, few (N = 12) have explored the cognitive aspect of theory of mind (ToM), i.e., the ability to understand others' thoughts and intentions. A systematic review of these studies shows inconsistent results regarding cognitive ToM tasks. Youths with a history of maltreatment are more likely to fail at false-belief tasks (N = 2). However, results are less conclusive regarding other tasks (perspective-taking tasks, N = 4; and hostile attribution tasks, N = 7). Additionally, only one study controlled for potential psychopathology. Measures of psychopathology and other cognitive abilities, in addition to ToM, are required to establish a specific association between maltreatment and the cognitive dimension of ToM.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière , Paris , France.
Xavier
X
Benarous
Groupe de Recherches sur l'Analyse Multimodale de la Fonction Cérébrale, INSERM U1105, CHU and Université Picardie Jules Verne , Amiens , France.
Jean-Marc
JM
Guilé
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière , Paris , France ; Paris-Sud Innovation Group in Adolescent Mental Health, INSERM U669, Maison de Solenn , Paris , France.
Angèle
A
Consoli
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière , Paris , France ; UMR 7222, Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Université Pierre et Marie Curie , Paris , France.
David
D
Cohen
attribution biases; child abuse; false-belief; maltreatment; perspective-taking; social cognition; systematic review; theory of mind