The consequences of neglect in children: neurocognitive comparisons among conduct disordered and non-conduct disordered youth residing in foster-care with that of children from intact families

摘要

Children (n = 85) between the ages of 6 and 16 were administered two tests of source monitoring proficiency, one an external source test and the second an internal source test. In addition, the children were assessed using the Children's Category Test (CCT), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III), and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The primary interest was to compare the source monitoring and cognitive processes of children in foster care with a diagnosed conduct disorder and children in foster care without a psychiatric diagnosis. In addition, a group consisting of children living with their parents was included for comparative purposes. For the primary analyses, the dependent variables consisted of raw ISM and ESM scores, full-scale IQ, measures of working memory and processing speed, and the total and perseverative error measures of the WCST. First, because age differences were expected, a MANOVA was used with the age of the subject grouped into three categories of 6 to 8-, 9 to 12-, and 13 to 16-year olds. Following the verification of age differences on the dependent measures, a MANCOVA was used to examine the influence of abuseeglect by comparing individuals in foster care, with and without a psychiatric diagnosis. Therefore, the study comprised three groups: (1) a group of children living at home with the parents and serving as a comparison group, (2) a control group consisting of children living in foster care but with no psychiatric diagnosis, and (3) a group of children living in foster care with a diagnosed conduct disorder. Age, as a continuous variable, served as the covariate. ISM scores revealed that both of the control groups differed from the foster care/conduct disorder group, with scores in the foster care control group comparable to that of the intact family comparison group. The intact family comparison group had significantly higher FS-IQ scores than either foster care group. In addition, FS-IQ scores in the foster care control group were intermediate between that of the intact family comparison and conduct disorder groups. Children in the intact family comparison group made significantly fewer total errors and perseverative errors than either foster care group. However, the number of perseverative errors for the two foster care groups was comparable.