35.2 Trust and Childhood Maltreatment: Evidence of Bias in Appraisal of Unfamiliar Faces

Abstract

Child maltreatment is associated with poorer social functioning and increased risk of mental health problems in adolescence and adulthood, but the processes underlying these associations remain unclear. Although crucial for establishing and maintaining relationships, trust judgments have not been experimentally investigated in children who have experienced abuse and neglect. A community-based sample of 75 children and adolescents aged 8 to 16 years with maltreatment documented on the basis of social services records, and a group of 70 peers selected to be of similar age, cognitive ability, socioeconomic status, gender, and ethnicity, took part in a facial trustworthiness judgment task. Children judged 10 computer-generated facial stimuli with each identity at 1 SD increments from –3 to +3 SD from the mean along a computationally modeled trustworthiness dimension. A generalized-linear multilevel model (GLMM) with a probit link function was carried out to estimate parameters at the group level while assigning random effects to the face identities. The bias (corresponding to the level of trustworthiness at which the child was equally likely to respond “trustworthy” or “not trustworthy”) was significantly greater in the group of children with documented histories of maltreatment (95% CI, 0.79-2.36) than in children without maltreatment histories (95% CI, –0.48 to 0.28). This study provides experimental evidence that children and adolescents with documented maltreatment perceive others as less trustworthy than their peers. Given that facial trustworthiness judgments have been linked to approach and avoidance, over time, alterations in trust processing may disrupt the development of social bonds and contribute to “social thinning” (a reduction in the extent and quality of social relationships), leaving children more vulnerable to environmental stressors, increasing the risk of mental health difficulties.