Childhood Trauma and Attachment Styles in Pain Decision Making

Abstract

Decision-making in people's everyday lives involves exploiting familiar options or exploring new alternatives, known as the exploration-exploitation dilemma (EED). It is particularly relevant in the context of pain, because it might reflect on latent mechanisms formed through early experiences in life. In this study we investigated the relationship between childhood trauma, attachment styles and the EED in the context of pain, during a decision-making task with electric stimulation and rewards. Seventy-seven participants (M = 22.8 years, 55 female, 22 male) completed the task, a decision-making task where they chose between two squares associated with electric stimuli or digital points in two blocks. We used the Child Trauma Questionnaire, specifically the emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect and minimization/denial subscales and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire, with anxiety and avoidance subscales. Results showed a significant positive correlation between physical neglect and exploration in block 2. Moreover, physical abuse significantly influenced exploration during the task. Still, no significant relationships were found for the remaining subscales. These findings propose that physical neglect and abuse influence decision making in pain leading to exploration, highlighting the need for future research on how early experiences shape decision-making