Victimisation, Hostile Attribution and links with Suspicious Minds

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Paranoia, extreme mistrust of others, is common in the general population and linked with both cognitive and social risk factors. Mistrust in children has received less attention, but may also result from either cognitive difficulties or negative peer experiences. We tested these competing hypotheses by building on a previous UK-Hong Kong study of childhood mistrust assessed the Social Mistrust Scale (Wong, Freeman & Hughes, 2014). 118 9- to 16-year olds (52.5% female) from the original 2,500 children were selected as being either trusting or mistrustful were reassessed 6 to 12 months after. They completed questions on mistrust, wellbeing, bullying, social exclusion, and cognitive reasoning bias tasks. Children did not differ on executive function, theory of mind, and reasoning bias tasks commonly used in adult studies (ps >.05). However, mistrustful children were more likely to attribute hostile intent to others in ambiguous situations (B =.23, p <.05) and be repeatedly victimised (B =.35, p <.01) than their trusting peers, but not more likely to be a bully or lonely (ps >.05). Bullying may fuel hostility and poor relationships. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine causality.

Author

• Keri K. Wong, University of Cambridge