Poster #13 - Cooperative Behavior and Cardiophysiological Correlates of Youth With and Without Maltreatment Experience

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Behavioral research using game-theoretical paradigms has yielded conflicting evidence of hyper- and hypo-cooperative strategies with peers among children exposed to childhood maltreatment (Keil et al., 2019; Pitula et al., 2017). Building on this research, we seek to investigate potential psychophysiological mechanisms through which maltreatment affects cooperative behavior. Since high-frequency HRV (hf-HRV) is a known correlate of self-regulation and positive social engagement, it qualifies as a promising candidate to further elucidate such biological mechanisms (Beauchaine & Thayer, 2015). We therefore aim to investigate hf-HRV and cooperative behavior in youth with and without maltreatment experience. We hypothesize that the maltreatment sample will show hyper-cooperation coupled with reduced hf-HRV compared to the non-maltreatment sample.
We collected data from 380 participants (aged 10 to 23, M=16.9) who took part in a prospective longitudinal study. Maltreatment exposure was assessed using an extensive coding system (Maltreatment Classification System; Barnett, Manly & Cicchetti, 1993) on reports from multiple sources, including caregivers and official child protection services records. Maltreated (n=105) and non-maltreated groups (n=275) did not differ in sex (Χ2= 2.64; p=0.10) or age (t=0.01; p=0.99). To assess cooperative behavior, participants played the Pizzagame, a child-appropriate computerized public goods game (PGG). In the game, participants assume they play with two same-aged, same-sex peers online, yet in reality they play with computerized dummies that alternate between cooperative, selfish and divergent conditions. During the task, the participants’ heart rate was measured to calculate local power (Bornemann et al., 2016), a short-term estimate of hf-HRV.
A 2x3 mixed-model ANOVA revealed significant main effects of PGG condition (F=343.84; p>0.001; np2=0.48) and a significant interaction effect of group with PGG condition, albeit with a very small effect size (F=3.49; p=0.03; np2=0.009). Follow-up tests showed that this effect is driven mostly by differences in the selfish condition (Figure 1). Since we are still preprocessing heart rate data, we cannot present any HRV results in this abstract to this moment. However, when the final data set is complete, we plan to run 2x3 mixed-model ANOVAs to test for differences in hf-HRV between groups and PGG conditions. Furthermore, we aim to assess hf-HRV similarity between groups through time-series analyses, to further test for attenuated hf-HRV during the individual rounds of the PGG.
This study indicates that maltreated youth are prone to hyper-cooperation when faced with selfish peers. Thus, youth with maltreatment experience are more vulnerable to exploitation in cooperative social situations. Furthermore, this study will investigate hf-HRV as a psychophysiological mechanism through which maltreatment affects such hyper-cooperation.

Authors

• Angelika Johanna Bracher, Leipzig University
  Presenting Author

• Josephine Breuer

• Dorukhan Açıl, Leipzig University

• Kai Von Klitzing, Uniklinikum Leipzig

• Jan Keil, Leipzig University

• Lars Otto White, Leipzig University