Cognitive Processing Bias For Facial Expressions Of College Students With History Of Childhood Psychological Maltreatment

Purposes:Psychological maltreatment is one of the most common yet often underrecognized forms of child abuse,but it has extensive and far-reaching impact on the development of children.Although childhood psychological maltreatment has a negative impact on the development of children's body and mind,the mechanisms of psychological abuse and the development of children are unknown.So the main object of this study was to explore the characteristics of cognitive processing and test the cognitive bias for facial expression of the adults with childhood history of psychological maltreatment.Methods:(1)Cluster sampling was applied in this study while 390 college students were chosen from Harbin Normal University.The Child Psychological Maltreatment Scale was tested in this investigation and 376 valid questionnaires were received.(2)Then 23 students(9 male and 14 female)with psychological maltreatment and 23 students(8 male and 15 female)without psychological maltreatment were selected to take part in all experiments,according to the Childhood Psychological Maltreatment Scale.(3)The experiment 1 used 2(groups:maltreated and controlled)×3(facial types:positive,neutral and negative)mixed design to explore the memory bias of college students who experienced psychological maltreatment for facial expressions;The experiment 2 used 2(groups:maltreated and controlled)×2(facial types:positive and negative)×2(consistency:consistent and inconsistent)mixed design on the index of reaction time and used 2(groups:maltreated and controlled×2(facial types:positive and negative)mixed design on the index of attention bias score to explore the attentional bias of college students who experienced psychological maltreatment for facial expressions;The experiment 3 used the composite emotional pictures to explore the interpretation bias for facial expressions in college students who experienced psychological maltreatment.Results:(1)In experiment 1,d' were analyzed with Repeated Measurement ANOVA and the results showed that the interaction effect between group and facial types were not found(F=.303,p=.740).(2)In experiment 2,The reaction time were analyzed with Repeated Measurement ANOVA and the results showed that the main effects in facial types(F=17.362,p=000),consistency(F=55.829,p=.000)and the interaction effect(F=9.624,p=.004)among group,facial types and consistency were found.Further analysis showed that psychological maltreated individuals reacted more slowly when position of the dot wasn't in consistent with neglect facial expresses(468.094±37.012)than the position wasn't in consistent with positive facial expresses(409.144±44.896);the attention bias scores were analyzed with Repeated Measurement ANOVA and the results showed that the main effects in groups(F=31.098,p=000)and facial types(F=32.361,p=.000)were found,that is,there was significant difference between groups and between facial types,respectively.Further analysis showed attention bias scores of psychological maltreated group to negative facial expression was significantly higher than that of the controlled group.(3)In experiment 3,group effect was found through HLM(t=2.744,p=.009),so it showed group could predict proportion of anger.Conclusions:College students who experienced psychological maltreatment in childhood had attentional bias to negative facial expression.At the same time,they were inclined to interpret blurred message to anger.Otherwise,there was not memory bias in these groups.In conclusion,the college students who experienced psychological maltreatment had the bias to negative information in cognitive process.