Abstract
Many studies have explored risk factors for child maltreatment, but little research has focused on situational risk factors such as cognitive load, which involves within-individual fluctuation. The current study sought to determine whether cognitive load led to within-individual changes in intention in response to infant crying. The study also sought to ascertain whether state empathy, empathic concern (EC), and personal distress mediated or moderated this relationship. Sixty-six participants completed a memory task (remembering meaningless, two- or eight-letter, English alphabet string), during which they were required to keep these letters in mind while hearing infant crying (or a tone). Subsequently, participants rated questions concerning state empathy and intention in response to the crying (i.e., intentions involving caregiving, neglect, or physical abuse). Results showed that cognitive load reduced caregiving intention and increased intention to perpetrate neglect. In addition, EC mediated the relationship between cognitive load and intention to provide care or perpetrate neglect. Moreover, cognitive load interacted with state empathy to predict intention to provide care or perpetrate neglect. These findings highlighted the importance of focusing on situational cognitive risk factors for child maltreatment and elucidated the role of state empathy as a mediator or moderator in child maltreatment research.
Highlights
Reports of child maltreatment have become more frequent over the last 12 years[1]
Previous studies examining risk factors for child maltreatment have focused mainly on between-individual dispositional and demographic factors; this study focused on the effects of cognitive load on self-regulation as a situational factor involving momentary within-individual fluctuation
This study sought to determine whether cognitive load would lead to within-individual changes in intention in response to infant crying and examine the mediation effects of two types of empathy
Summary
Reports of child maltreatment have become more frequent over the last 12 years[1]. Infant and child maltreatment has severe, deleterious short- and long-term effects on children’s cognitive, socioemotional, and behavioral development and physical wellness[2], and in the worst cases, can lead to death[3]. Previous studies have suggested that infant crying causes affective and physiological responses[5,6], which are known to be influenced by individual variations in psychobiological factors such as personality traits[7], depression[8], and oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism[9] These factors are dispositional, and few studies have examined between-situation and within-individual differences in responses to infant crying. Cognitive load impairs subjective empathy (EC) and leads to dissociation of the activation of brain areas involved in empathy such as the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex[21], while cognitive factors do not affect PD17 In light of these observations, we predicted that cognitive load would influence empathy, impairing EC in particular, and this change in state empathy would predict maladaptive intention in response to infant crying
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