Background

The detrimental impact of child maltreatment on children and adolescents' academic achievement and later socioeconomic wellbeing is well known. However, it is still unclear (1) whether maltreatment is actually linked to youth's long- and short-term memory deficits and (2) whether potential impairments are due to maltreatment per se or related psychopathology.

Objective

Based on the Attentional Control Theory, we investigated a mediational model in which maltreatment would be related to psychopathology (internalizing symptoms, posttraumatic stress symptoms, posttraumatic cognitions), which would in turn be related to impaired memory functioning.

Participants and setting

We drew on a sample of 155 Burundian refugee youth (aged 11 to 15) currently living in refugee camps in Tanzania and at high risk of experiencing ongoing maltreatment by parents.

Methods

Youth reported on their experiences of maltreatment and psychopathology in structured clinical interviews and completed visuospatial memory tasks involving a short-term and a working memory component (Corsi Block Tapping Test) and delayed recall from long-term memory (Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure).

Results

Structural equation modeling showed that psychopathology mediated the association between increased maltreatment and reduced working memory capacity (β = −0.07, p = .02), with a trend towards mediation for short-term memory (β = −0.05, p = .06). Higher levels of maltreatment, but not psychopathology, were directly linked to long-term memory deficits (β = −0.20, p = .02).

Conclusions

Preventive efforts targeting maltreatment and interventions focusing on related psychopathology are needed to counter memory deficits and their potential negative implications for academic and socioeconomic outcomes.

中文翻译：

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精神病理学在布隆迪难民青年的虐待和记忆功能之间起中介作用

背景

虐待儿童对儿童和青少年的学业成绩和后来的社会经济福祉的不利影响是众所周知的。然而，目前尚不清楚（1）虐待是否真的与青少年的长期和短期记忆缺陷有关，以及（2）潜在的损害是否是由于虐待本身或相关的精神病理学造成的。

客观的

基于注意力控制理论，我们研究了一个中介模型，其中虐待与精神病理学（内化症状、创伤后应激症状、创伤后认知）有关，而精神病理学又与记忆功能受损有关。

参与者和设置

我们抽取了 155 名布隆迪难民青年（年龄在 11 至 15 岁）的样本，这些青年目前居住在坦桑尼亚的难民营中，并且很可能遭受父母持续虐待。

方法

青年报告了他们在结构化临床访谈中遭受虐待和精神病理学的经历，并完成了涉及短期和工作记忆组件（Corsi Block Tapping Test）和长期记忆延迟回忆（Rey-Osterrieth 复杂图）的视觉空间记忆任务。

结果

结构方程模型表明，精神病理学介导了虐待增加与工作记忆能力降低之间的关联（β  = -0.07，p  = .02），并且倾向于调节短期记忆（β  = -0.05，p  = .06） . 更高水平的虐待，但不是精神病理学，与长期记忆缺陷直接相关（β  = -0.20，p  = .02）。

结论

需要针对虐待的预防性努力和针对相关精神病理学的干预措施，以应对记忆缺陷及其对学术和社会经济结果的潜在负面影响。