O impacto dos maus-tratos na cognição e na emoção durante a infância

• Autor(a) principal: Núñez Carvalho, Janaína Castro
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da PUC_RS
• Texto Completo: http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/6564
• topic: MAUS-TRATOS INFANTIS; COGNIÇÃO; PSICOPATOLOGIA; NEUROPSICOLOGIA; PSICOLOGIA CLÍNICA; CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA

The occurrence of maltreatment in childhood is a phenomenon with high prevalence around the world and is associated to a series of neurobiological, emotional and cognitive impairments in victims. A body of evidence already exists regarding its consequences for adolescent and adult samples, suggesting deleterious medium and long-term impacts; however, impairments in childhood have not been sufficiently studied. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the impact of maltreatment on cognition during childhood, as well as the presence of associated clinical symptoms. This thesis is composed of three papers: one theoretical and two empirical. The theoretical article entitled "Cognitive, neurobiological and psychopathological alterations associated with child maltreatment: a review of systematic reviews" aims to review the association between maltreatment and neurobiological, cognitive and lifetime comorbid psychiatric alterations. Important neurobiological alterations were found to be associated with maltreatment, as changes in levels of cortisol, dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. Structural impairments were found in regions such as the frontal cortex and hippocampus in adult victims of childhood maltreatment. The most consistent finding was the association between childhood maltreatment and presence of psychiatric conditions in adulthood. Regarding the impact of maltreatment on cognition, there are few studies to date and they report contrasting results. A need for further studies with child samples was evidenced through the literature review, in order to assess the immediate or short-term impact of maltreatment in cognition, as well as the presence of clinical symptoms. Thus, the first empirical article entitled "Cognitive Performance and Clinical Symptoms in Maltreatment Victims: Intellectual Impairment Evidence in a Child Sample in Brazil" aims to assess global cognitive profile and the prevalence of intellectual impairment of a sample of child victims of maltreatment between 6 and 12 years of age. A further objective is to assess the presence of internalizing and externalizing symptoms and their relation to the cognitive profile of the sample. Group differences were found across all assessed functions, with the presence of important intellectual impairment in the maltreatment group. More clinical symptoms, especially externalizing symptoms, were found in the maltreatment group. Few associations were found between clinical symptoms and cognitive profile. The second empirical article, "Executive Function and clinical symptoms in children exposed to maltreatment", sought to assess in a more specific manner the executive functioning of a group of child victims of maltreatment aged 8 to 12 years. Furthermore, clinical symptoms were more broadly investigated in the sample, through the assessment of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Evidence of an important executive impairment was found in the maltreatment group. Inhibitory control remained impaired even when controlling for intelligence. More clinical symptoms were found in the maltreatment group, with no association between most of the cognitive and clinical measures. Lastly, final considerations about the work are drawn. In view of the findings of a high prevalence of intellectual impairments in the maltreatment group and the dissociation between cognitive impairments and clinical profile, the discussion revolves around preventive and cognitive stimulation interventions for victims.