Kirke-Smith Mimi, Henry Lucy, Messer David
Language and Communication Science, City University, London, UK.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2014 Sep;32(3):305-19. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12041. Epub 2014 Mar 29.
Research suggests that children exposed to maltreatment have deficits in executive functioning (EF) but few studies have focused on the adolescent age group. We investigated whether maltreated adolescents had lower EF abilities compared to a group of non-maltreated adolescents. Forty adolescents with histories of child maltreatment, together with a comparison group of 40 non-maltreated adolescents matched for age, completed a comprehensive battery of EF tasks. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses, controlling for IQ, were carried out using each of the EF measures as dependent variables to examine group differences. Maltreated adolescents had significantly lower performance than non-maltreated adolescents on tasks assessing executive loaded working memory, fluency, and inhibition, although switching was not impaired. Emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) were included in additional regression analyses to examine whether these variables would explain the group differences. The inclusion of EBD variables had some effect on group differences, as expected, but did not eliminate them. These findings support the theory that impairments in EF may be one underlying reason why adolescents with histories of maltreatment struggle to cope both inside and outside the classroom.
研究表明，遭受虐待的儿童存在执行功能（EF）缺陷，但很少有研究关注青少年群体。我们调查了与一组未受虐待的青少年相比，受虐待的青少年执行功能能力是否较低。40名有儿童期虐待史的青少年与一组年龄匹配的40名未受虐待的青少年对照组一起，完成了一系列全面的执行功能任务。以智商为控制变量，使用每项执行功能测量指标作为因变量进行分层多元回归分析，以检验组间差异。在评估执行负荷工作记忆、流畅性和抑制的任务中，受虐待的青少年表现明显低于未受虐待的青少年，尽管转换能力未受损。在额外的回归分析中纳入了情绪和行为困难（EBD），以检验这些变量是否能解释组间差异。正如预期的那样，纳入EBD变量对组间差异有一定影响，但并未消除差异。这些发现支持了这样一种理论，即执行功能受损可能是有虐待史的青少年在课堂内外都难以应对的一个潜在原因。
