Organizational Perspective on Cognitive Control Functioning and Cognitive-Affective Balance in Maltreated Children

Examined the relation between a history of maltreatment and cognitive control functioning in two groups of preschool and early school-age maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Administered several measures of cognitive control functioning to each child in situations that did or did not arouse aggressive fantasies and affects. Maltreated and nonmaltreated children showed differences in the developmental status of cognitive control functioning when cognitive controls were assessed in a relatively neutral, nonaggressive context, with maltreated children showing developmentally impaired cognitive control functioning on a number of tasks. Maltreated children also differed significantly from nonmaltreated children in terms of shifts observed in cognitive control functioning when coordinating aggressive compared with nonaggressive stimuli with associated fantasies and affects. Discussed findings with regard to maltreated children's regulation of emotion, their aggressive impulses, and their internal working models of relationships.