Research paper on emotional child abuse

Pmc1494926the long-term health outcomes of childhood abusean overview and a call to actionkristen w springer, mph, ma,1 jennifer sheridan, phd,1,2 daphne kuo, phd,1,4 and molly carnes, md, ms2,31received from the department of sociology and center for demography, university of wisconsin, madison, wis2the women in science and engineering leadership institute, university of wisconsin, madison, wis3the department of medicine and center for women's health and women's health research, university of wisconsin, madison, wis4the department of sociology at the university of washington, seattle, washaddress correspondence and requests for reprints to dr. Molly carnes, department of medicine and psychiatry, director, center for women's health and women's health research, university of wisconsin, meriter hospital 6west, 202 south park street, madison, wi 53715 (e-mail: af@senraclm). Information ► copyright and license information ►copyright 2003 by the society of general internal medicinethis article has been cited by other articles in ctwhile the association between abuse in childhood and adverse adult health outcomes is well established, this link is infrequently acknowledged in the general medical literature. This paper has 2 purposes: (1) to provide a broad overview of the research on the long-term effects of child abuse on mental and physical health including some of the potential pathways, and (2) to call for collaborative action among clinicians, psychosocial and biomedical researchers, social service agencies, criminal justice systems, insurance companies, and public policy makers to take a comprehensive approach to both preventing and dealing with the sequelae of childhood ds: anxiety, depression, hostility, medical diagnoses, childhood abuse, somatic symptomsbackgroundthe association between childhood abuse and adverse adult health outcomes is well established. 21 unfortunately, despite volumes of research documenting this link, it is infrequently acknowledged in the general medical literature. The need for more visible research that will reach physicians who provide the bulk of front line health care is underscored by failure to give even passing mention to the well-documented link between adult depression and childhood abuse in a recent review on depression in the new england journal of medicine. 23 the otherwise comprehensive national guidelines on depression in primary care24 issued in 1993 also make no mention of the importance of childhood abuse as a risk factor. Irritable bowel is the single exception, where through the work of drossman and leserman,7,29 the association of this disorder with a history of childhood or adult sexual and physical abuse in women is now consistently mentioned in reviews of functional bowel disorders. If physicians caring for adults who suffer from a condition associated with abuse in childhood are unaware of this link, they will neither elicit an abuse history nor make appropriate patient referrals. This is especially troubling because conditions associated with childhood abuse are burdensome to both the patient and the health care system,30–32 relatively simple interventions may prove effective in alleviating much distress,33–37 only 2% to 5% of patients with a history of childhood sexual abuse will themselves report it to a physician,15,18 and managed care typically places the primary care physician as the gatekeeper controlling patient access to specialized services. Furthermore, while most patients say they want their physicians to screen for a history of abuse, most physicians admit that they do not do so. Present this overview of the current research linking childhood abuse to adult physical and mental health in an effort to educate internists, who likely see many patients with an abuse history. Published manuscripts reviewed for this paper were obtained from medline, sociological abstracts, and psychological abstracts using singly, or in combination, search terms such as child abuse, violence, maltreatment, physical abuse, sexual abuse, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, chronic pain, depression, eating disorders, somatic symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder, and health outcomes. References were also retrieved from the bibliographies of these ood abuse has been associated with a plethora of psychological and somatic symptoms,17–19 as well as psychiatric and medical diagnoses including depression,1,14,39 anxiety disorders,13,39 eating disorders,13 posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd),39–41 chronic pain syndromes,20,40,42,43 fibromyalgia,19,44,45 chronic fatigue syndrome,44 and irritable bowel. 16,42 compared with nonabused adults, those who experienced childhood abuse are more likely to engage in high-risk health behaviors including smoking,2,18 alcohol and drug use,9,13,18 and unsafe sex;9,18 to report an overall lower health status;9,16,46 and to use more health services. Viewing these various health conditions and behaviors as the outcome and abuse in childhood as the exposure, many of the criteria for a causal relationship are met47 (table 1). 1epidemiological guidelines met for a causal relationship between abuse in childhood and adverse adult health outcomeschildhood abuse is common. Nonclinical samples of adults in the united states and internationally show self-reported childhood physical abuse prevalence rates of 10% to 31% in men and 6% to 40% in women,46,48 and childhood sexual abuse of 3% to 29% in men8,48,49 and 7% to 36% in women. 39,48,49 in primary care settings, physical or sexual abuse in childhood is reported by approximately 20% to 50% of adults,9,18,30,42 and among patients with depression, irritable bowel, chronic pain, or substance abuse, prevalence of reported childhood physical or sexual abuse runs as high as 70%. 19,45,50,51 finkelhor notes that in surveys conducted in 19 countries, including 10 national probability samples, rates of childhood sexual abuse are comparable. Differences in the definition of abuse and the age cutoff for childhood account for much of the variation between et al. Define child abuse as “nonaccidental serious physical injury, sexual exploitation or misuse, neglect or serious mental injury of a child … as a result of acts of commission or omission by a parent, guardian, or caretaker. The vast majority of research in both clinical and population-based studies of adult survivors has focused on childhood sexual abuse in women. Or psychological abuse9,11,19,57 and physical and emotional neglect19,21 in children have also been examined for prevalence and selected sequelae, primarily psychological and early onset or recurrent depression. While the specific behaviors categorized as “abuse” often exist in the context of the more global concept of an “abusive family environment,”2,9,14 specific aggressive behaviors directed at a child are generally what is measured in research on childhood abuse. Use of physical force, coercion, repeated abuse, multiple types of abuse, and abuse by a close family member are associated with worse health outcomes across studies. 16,45,50,58,59childhood abuse and adult physical healtha variety of somatic symptoms are consistently found to be higher in adults with a history of physical or sexual abuse compared with those without an abuse history. 17 who found the following symptoms significantly related to a history of childhood physical or sexual abuse in women in primary care practices: nightmares, back pain, frequent or severe headaches, pain in the pelvic, genital, or private area, eating binges or self-induced vomiting, frequent tiredness, problems sleeping, abdominal or stomach pain, vaginal discharge, breast pain, choking sensation, loss of appetite, problems urinating, diarrhea, constipation, chest pain, face pain, frequent or serious bruises, and shortness of breath.

Emotional child abuse research paper

Found women in a primary care clinic with a history of childhood sexual abuse scored significantly higher on a somatization scale than those without abuse and women who had more severe abuse or multiple abusers scored the highest. 8 in a longitudinal study of swiss adults, found scores on the symptom checklist scl-90r to be higher among those with a history of childhood abuse. 61 while our review focuses on abuse in childhood, it is relevant that those who suffered neglect or maltreatment in childhood are more likely to become victims of abuse as adults,62 and that research on the relationship between childhood abuse and adult health needs to control for adult specific types of abuse alone or in conjunction with other variables may lead to any of these conditions is unknown, although measurable abnormalities in major physiological regulatory systems (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis and autonomic nervous system) have been found in some adults with a history of abuse. 63childhood abuse and mental healthchildhood abuse is positively related to adult depression, aggression, hostility, anger, fear, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders. 65 at least 3 meta-analyses on the effects of childhood sexual abuse55,66,67 find clear and convincing evidence of a link between such abuse and a host of adult psychological symptoms. Kessler and magee14 found childhood abuse to have consistent significant effects on early onset and recurrent depression and that violence from siblings or multiple family members (e. Retrospective studies also show that childhood abuse has consistent effects on first onset of early adult psychopathology. Found that 46% of those with a history of childhood sexual abuse, compared with 28% of those with no abuse, had experienced a major depressive episode. Women with such abuse also had significantly greater lifetime prevalences of agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia, sexual disorders, ptsd, and suicide attempts than women without such abuse. 56 in a community survey of 7016 men and women, examined lifetime psychopathology risk in adults who experienced either sexual or physical abuse as children and found anxiety disorders and depressive disorders to be significantly higher in both men and women with a history of either physical or sexual abuse. In female adults reporting unwanted attempted or completed intercourse before age 16 compared with those without ood abuse and functional statussomatic symptoms and depression, both of which have a negative impact on physical functioning, are clearly associated with an abuse history. Golding,68 in a community sample of women of all ages, demonstrated that physical symptoms associated with childhood or adult sexual assault predicted impairments in physical functioning, nearly doubling the odds of being confined to bed or restricted in normal activities. Also found more bed days and greater functional impairment in women with bowel syndromes who had been sexually abused as a child or adult. Functional impairment is also a prominent feature of a number of the somatic pain syndromes associated with a history of abuse in ve to men, women face greater functional impairment as they age despite the paradox of a longer lifespan. Although sexual abuse is twice as common in women as men and childhood or adult abuse appears to be a predictor of functional impairment in women,16,68 neither the contribution of early life sexual abuse to the differential functional impairment between older men and women nor the impact of any type of childhood abuse on functional status of men or women as they age has been ys linking childhood abuse and health outcomesalthough the association between childhood abuse and adverse psychological, behavioral, and health outcomes in adult survivors is well documented, abuse research is just beginning to disentangle the pathways, correlates, and differential impacts of different types of abuse. Kendall-tackett71 details four possible pathways (emotional, behavioral, social, and cognitive) through which childhood abuse affects adult health. The emotional pathway focuses on mental health outcomes, a topic covered in depth in previous behavioral pathway includes a myriad of health-related behaviors such as substance abuse, obesity, suicide, high-risk sexual behavior, and smoking. 9,13,18,71 to cite only a few specific examples, the adverse childhood experiences study of enrollees in kaiser permanente found adults with a history of verbal, physical, or sexual abuse in childhood were more likely than those without to report current and early-age smoking,2 severe obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol or illicit drug use, and sex with >50 partners. Springs and friedrich18 found that abuse status was associated with age of smoking onset and heavy smoking, urges to consume alcohol, number of sexual partners, and the likelihood of regular pap smears in women in a rural family practice clinic. Found a dose–response relationship for severity of childhood sexual abuse and lifetime substance abuse disorders in the virginia twin registry and in discordant pairs, with the twin reporting the abuse having the pathways linking childhood abuse and health include the ability to form and maintain social relationships. 15,75the association between childhood abuse and educational achievement is another potential pathway, especially given the strong evidence of a socioeconomic differential in morbidity and mortality. 80–86 for example, solomon and serres83 found that verbal abuse contributed to lowering language test scores for 10 year olds, and kinard82 found that abused children had lower grades, lower attendance, and more placements in special education programs. Found that maltreated children had lower test scores and grades in reading and math, with neglected children scoring lower than physically or sexually abused children. Perez and widom86 found that the academic and intellectual outcomes of childhood abuse persist into family environment and abusefinally, it is important to acknowledge that childhood abuse often occurs in the context of other adverse family environment factors, many of which are also linked to health. For example, children growing up in poverty tend to have earlier parenthood, lower cognitive ability, lower grades in school, less education, and poor physical health. Additionally, family violence usually coexists with other adverse experiences, such as poverty, parental marital problems, parental substance abuse, and poor family function. 89 living with only 1 natural parent may be a risk factor for sexual abuse in boys and girls. Childhood abuse occurs in families at all socioeconomic levels, though childhood abuse sometimes interacts with early family environment factors.

For example, some research indicates that abused children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to suffer from depression. And interventionthere is general consensus that a history of abuse in childhood is more likely to be uncovered if questions are specific regarding past experiences, avoiding the term “abuse,” and that multiple questions increase the yield. Detected a history of child physical or sexual abuse in 22% of women in general medical clinics with 2 questions: “were you ever physically abused before age 18? The potential for harm by asking such questions of those who have a history of childhood or adult abuse but are currently without symptoms has not been systematically examined, although in 2 studies women with a history of childhood or adult abuse reported that they would like their physicians to inquire about abuse. 93in those with symptoms or syndromes known to be associated with past abuse, more than a single screening question may be necessary. This trauma could be something like a major car accident, serving in military combat, having your life threatened in some way, being raped, being physically harmed as a child, or being touched in a sexual way as a child. For example, asking when the symptoms began and whether any specific traumatic event occurred around that rigorous standards used to evaluate health screening measures have not been applied to screening for past or current abuse94 and large clinical intervention trials are lacking. Positive results have been reported with both group and individual psychotherapy in women survivors of childhood sexual abuse. 95 controlled trials in women with posttraumatic stress disorder associated with childhood or adult sexual abuse indicate that cognitive behavioral therapy can reduce patient suffering. Found several types of cognitive behavioral interventions significantly decreased symptoms compared with no treatment in women with posttraumatic stress disorder, half of whom had experienced childhood sexual or physical abuse. Found in a randomized, controlled trial that imagery rehearsal, another type of cognitive behavioral therapy, reduced chronic nightmares and improved sleep compared with a wait-listed control group in women with posttraumatic stress disorder related to sexual abuse in childhood. While not specific to adult survivors of child abuse, in a review of controlled trials of cognitive behavior therapy, kroenkeand swindle35 noted that significant, measurable, and often sustained improvement occurred with this form of treatment in patients with syndromes associated with childhood abuse including chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, and patients with multiple somatic symptoms. Such an intervention deserves further exploration as a useful adjunctive intervention for symptomatic survivors of childhood to actionfrom our review of research on the long-term health consequences of childhood abuse, we recommend the following:primary and subspecialty physicians need to recognize that childhood abuse predisposes adults to a number of chronic mental and physical health problems many years after the abuse. Certain somatic syndromes or clusters of somatic symptoms should cause immediate suspicion among clinicians about such a history and lead to inquiry about such past abuse in specific but sensitive ways. Follow-up counseling and appropriate referral should be offered because the benefit of cognitive behavioral interventions in conjunction with pharmacotherapy has been shown in at least 1 randomized, controlled trial to reduce chronic symptoms associated with childhood abuse, at least in women. Health benefit packages or insurance companies that do not cover psychotherapy may impede or prevent the delivery of effective hed clinical reviews of conditions such as depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel, chronic pain, and syndromes characterized by multiple somatic symptoms often in association with psychological distress need to mention the possibility of an association with childhood abuse. A history of childhood abuse and maltreatment should also be included as a variable in future clinical research on these ts exhibiting high-risk health behaviors including tobacco, alcohol, and substance abuse should be specifically asked about childhood ce-based practice guidelines for evaluation and management of patients with long-term sequelae of childhood abuse are urgently research is needed to understand the pathways linking childhood abuse and adult mental and physical health, to assess the impact of past abuse on adults as they age, and to explore further treatment is clearly a need for collaboration among psychosocial and biomedical researchers, clinicians, social service agencies, criminal justice systems, insurance companies, and public policy makers to take a comprehensive approach to both preventing and dealing with the sequelae of childhood abuse. The conditions associated with childhood abuse cause disability in individual patients and consume a tremendous amount of health professionals’ time and health care resources for decades following the abuse. We must acknowledge abuse of children not only as a social issue but as a health and health care ledgmentsthis work was supported by national institute on aging grants k07 ag0074 and t32 ag000129, the dhhs owh national centers of excellence in women's health program, the national science foundation grant no. Childhood sexual abuse as a risk factor for depression in women: psychosocial and neurobiological correlates. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: the adverse childhood experiences (ace) study. Anxiety, depression, and dissociation in women health care providers reporting a history of childhood psychological abuse. Impact of sexual and physical abuse dimensions on health status: development of an abuse severity measure. Department of health and human services, public health services, agency for health care policy and research (ahcpr). Selected symptoms associated with sexual and physical abuse history among female patients with gastrointestinal disorders: the impact on subsequent health care visits. Chronic pain and health care utilization in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse. Costs of health care use by women hmo members with a history of childhood abuse and neglect. Abuse-related posttraumatic stress disorder and alterations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in women with chronic pelvic pain.

Does a history of sexual abuse in childhood play a role in women's medical problems: a review. The association between childhood physical and sexual victimization and health problems in adulthood in a nationally representative sample of women. Prevalence of child physical and sexual abuse in the community: results from the ontario health. Association between self-reported childhood sexual abuse and adverse psychosocial outcomes: results from a twin study. Pituitary-adrenal and autonomic responses to stress in women after sexual and physical abuse in childhood. The combined effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuse during childhood: long-term health consequences for women. Correlations of grade point averages at a rural college with reports of abuse in rural families. Abused and battered: social and legal responses of family violence: social institute and social change. Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and women: prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors. Pubmed]articles from journal of general internal medicine are provided here courtesy of society of general internal s:article | pubreader | epub (beta) | pdf (98k) | ncbi web site requires javascript to tionresourceshow toabout ncbi accesskeysmy ncbisign in to ncbisign l listhhs author abuse negl. Author manuscript; available in pmc 2015 aug hed in final edited form as:child abuse negl. Pmc4117717nihmsid: nihms580875long-term effects of child abuse and neglect on emotion processing in adulthoodjoanna cahall young and cathy spatz widompsychology department, john jay college of criminal justice/cuny graduate centercorrespondence may be sent to joanna cahall at: @llahacjauthor information ► copyright and license information ►copyright notice and disclaimerpublisher's disclaimerthe publisher's final edited version of this article is available at child abuse neglsee other articles in pmc that cite the published article. This paper brings together research on child maltreatment, emotional development, and psychopathology to examine the consequences of child abuse and neglect for emotion processing in ood maltreatment and emotion processingin general, child maltreatment has been found to disrupt the normal process of emotional development. It is also believed that maltreating parents tend to be isolated themselves and to isolate their children from interaction with others, providing fewer nonparental models of emotional communication (salzinger, feldman, hammer, & rosario, 1993). A child who receives inconsistent or harsh caregiving has difficulty predicting the consequences of his/her behavior (dadds & salmon, 2003) and this may be manifest in deficits in processing emotional information. For example, maltreated children have been found to show specific deficits in understanding (shipman & zeman, 1999), recognizing (pollak, cicchetti, hornug, & reed, 2000), and expressing emotion (gaensbauer, 1982) and are at risk for exhibiting social delays (kim & cicchetti, 2010), deficits in empathy (beeghly & cicchetti, 1994), and decreased engagement in prosocial behavior (koenig, cicchetti, & rogosch, 2004). These findings reveal general deficits in emotion processing in maltreated children, but the question remains about whether these deficits would persist into tests of facial emotion recognition (fer), pollak and sinha (2002) found that children with physical abuse histories were better able to identify facial displays of anger compared to controls. Several other studies using event-related potentials and behavioral evidence have found a sensitivity bias to perceive anger in physically abused children (pollak & sinha, 2002; pollak, vardi, pultzer-bechner, & curtin, 2005; shackman, shackman, & pollak, 2007) and, more generally, in a sample of maltreated children (curtis & cicchetti, 2011, 2013; leist & dadds, 2009; masten et al. 2005) suggested that in abusive home environments children learn to associate anger with threat of harm and therefore, they are hypervigilant to anger in their environment. 2008) elaborated on this theory to suggest that maltreated children become better prepared to identify threatening situations through hypervigilance of emotions. For example, these children may be more sensitive to anger in their abuser and fear of those around them because both sensitivities could help them identify threat quickly and potentially avoid additional abuse (masten et al. 2007) have shown that maltreated children show enhanced selective attention to angry facial expressions posed by their mothers. Thus, this body of research would suggest that individuals with histories of childhood physical abuse might be less likely to show deficits in processing negative emotional pictures and more likely to show deficits for pictures with positive or neutral little research has examined emotion recognition in neglected children. In earlier research, bousha and twentyman (1984) found that neglecting parents were less expressive and engaged with little exchange of affective information in interactions with their children and, thus, provided less support in learning to understand emotions more generally. Impoverished social and emotional environments, which are often present in cases of neglect, prevent the development of normal emotional skills (pollak et al. 2000) and may cause a blunted pattern of emotional reactivity (gilles, berntson, zipf, & gunnar, 2000; van der vegt, van der ende, kirschbaum, verhulst, & tiemeier, 2009). 2000) reported that neglected children had more difficulty in recognizing emotional expressions in a vignette than a control group or physically abused children. When rating the similarity between facial expressions of different emotions, neglected children saw fewer distinctions between emotions compared to the other two groups (pollak et al.

However, this is the only study to investigate emotion perception deficits specific to neglected children. To our knowledge, no studies have focused on sexually abused children, and the existing literature is based almost exclusively on studies of children, with no research investigating the long-term effects of childhood abuse and neglect on adult emotion processing ial mechanisms linking childhood maltreatment and emotion processingif the impact of child abuse and neglect on emotion processing extends into adulthood, what might be some of mechanisms that lead to these outcomes? Research has increasingly shown that childhood abuse and neglect can result in a cascade of negative consequences across multiple domains of functioning (gilbert, widom, browne, fergusson, elspeth, & janson, 2009; widom, 2000) that might explain an increased risk for deficits in emotion processing abilities for individuals with histories of child abuse and/or neglect. Specifically, child abuse and neglect has been associated with cognitive deficits in general and various forms of psychopathology that may lead to emotion processing , several studies have reported that abused and neglected children are at increased risk for lower academic performance and intelligence in childhood (eckenrode, laird, & doris 1993; jonson-reid, drake, kim, porterfield, & han, 2004; lansford, dodge, pettit, bates, crozier, & kaplow, 2002) and that these effects of childhood maltreatment extend into young adulthood (perez & widom, 1994). Thus, it is possible that deficits in intelligence lead to general deficits in performance on processing tasks, particularly those that involve memory, and this finding may help explain why maltreated children perform worse on these is also possible that some of the psychological consequences that have been associated with child abuse and neglect have a negative impact on performance on emotion processing tasks in adulthood. For example, individuals with histories of abuse have been found to exhibit more symptoms of anxiety disorders (springer, sheridan, kuo, & carnes, 2007). A separate body of research reveals that individuals with higher levels of anxiety symptoms show deficits in emotion perception (mogg & bradley, 1999) and emotion regulation (suveg, morelen, brewer, & thomassin, 2010), and individuals with ptsd have shown an attentional bias to trauma-related stimuli (buckley, blanchard, & neill, 2000). In turn, a separate body of research suggests that individuals with depression exhibit deficits in regulating emotions (joormann, siemer, & gotlib, 2007) and perceiving emotion in others (stuhrmann, suslow, & dannlowski, 2011). Therefore, it is possible that maltreated children may have difficulty recognizing emotions as a function of higher levels of depression (eberhart, auerbach, bigda-peyton, & abela, 2011). Present, it is unclear whether the association between child maltreatment and deficits in processing of emotion would persist, independent of the effects of psychopathology. 2008) focused on how ptsd might relate to maltreated children’s processing of emotions and found that maltreated children displayed a heightened ability (faster reaction time compared to controls) to identify fearful faces, independent of ptsd diagnosis. These findings with children suggest that maltreatment is uniquely related to emotion processing deficits, regardless of ptsd addition to internalizing consequences of child abuse and neglect, there is also a body of research that has linked childhood maltreatment to externalizing traits, including antisocial behavior and psychopathy (bernstein, stein, & handelsman, 1998; kolla, malcolm, attard, arenovich, blackwood, & hodgins, 2013; lang, klinteberg, & alm, 2002; weiler & widom, 1996). Maltreated children may show emotion processing deficits in adulthood through higher levels of psychopathic traits, reflecting greater desensitization, less empathy, or less responsiveness to the needs of others (weiler & widom, 1996), critical characteristics of psychopaths. In sum, there are a number of plausible mechanisms that might explain deficits in emotional processing in adults with histories of childhood abuse and neglect and warrant ic aims and hypothesesthis study has several aims. The first goal is to assess emotion processing abilities in individuals with documented histories of childhood abuse and neglect and a matched control group who have been followed up into esis 1participants with a history of childhood maltreatment will be less accurate overall in recognizing affective pictures than controls, suggesting general deficits in processing emotional second aim is to determine whether these emotion processing deficits vary by types of childhood maltreatment (physical and sexual abuse and neglect) and by emotional valance (positive, negative, or neutral). However, given the dearth of literature on the topic, no specific predictions are made about children who have been sexually esis 2based on earlier work suggesting that children growing up in abusive home environments will learn to associate anger with threat of harm (pollak et al. 2005), it is hypothesized that victims of childhood physical abuse will be more accurate in recognizing negative images (that is, physically abused children will not differ from controls), but less accurate in recognizing positive and neutral images, than matched esis 3as a result of their impoverished social and emotional environments, it is predicted that neglected children will be less accurate in recognizing negative and positive images (emotionally valenced pictures) than controls. Final aim is to examine whether the associations between childhood maltreatment and deficits in emotion processing abilities are, in part, a function of consequences of child maltreatment, specifically, iq, psychopathology (generalized anxiety disorder, ptsd, dysthymia, and major depressive disorder), and psychopathy or whether deficits are independent of these forms of esis 4it is hypothesized that iq, psychopathology, and psychopathy will each mediate the relationship between child abuse and neglect and emotion processing soverviewthe data used here are from a prospective cohort design study in which abused and neglected children were matched with non-abused, non-neglected children and followed into young adulthood. The control group may also differ from the abused and neglected individuals on other variables associated with abuse or neglect. The initial phase of the study compared the abused and/or neglected children to the matched comparison group (n = 1,575) on juvenile and adult criminal arrest records (widom, 1989b). The second phase involved tracking, locating, and interviewing both groups during 1989–1995, approximately 22 years after incidents of abuse and neglect (n = 1,196). The research presented in this paper uses information collected during all four ipants and designthe original sample of abused and neglected children (n = 908) was made up of court-substantiated cases of childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect processed from 1967 to 1971 in the county juvenile (family) or adult criminal courts of a midwestern metropolitan area. Cases of abuse and neglect were restricted to children 11 years of age or less at the time of the incident. A control group of children without documented histories of child abuse or neglect (n = 667) was matched with the abuse/neglect group on age, sex, race/ethnicity, and approximate family social class during the time that the abuse and neglect records were control group represents a critical component of the study design. Children who were under school age at the time of the abuse and/or neglect were matched with children of the same sex, race, date of birth (±1 week), and hospital of birth through the use of county birth record information. For children of school age, records of more than 100 elementary schools for the same time period were used to find matches with children of the same sex, race, date of birth (±6 months), class in elementary school during the years 1967–1971, and home address, preferably within a five-block radius of the abused/neglected child. For birth records, non-matches occurred in situations when the abused and neglected child was born outside the county or state or when date of birth information was missing. For school records, non-matches occurred because of lack of adequate identifying information for the abused and neglected children or because the elementary school had closed and class registers were not the original sample, 83% were located, and 1,196 (76%) participated in the 1989–1995 interview.

There were no significant differences in sex, race, age at initial abuse/neglect petition, or proportion who experienced overall abuse and/or neglect or any specific type of abuse or neglect across the four the 649 participants that completed the 2009–2010 interviews, 547 had complete information on the measures included here. These numbers add up to more than 295 because some participants had experienced more than one type of abuse or neglect). The interviewers were blind to the purpose of the study and to the inclusion of an abused and/or neglected group. For individuals with limited reading ability, the consent form was presented and explained esindependent variable childhood abuse and neglect childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect were assessed through review of official records processed during the years 1967–1971. Physical abuse cases included injuries such as bruises, welts, burns, abrasions, lacerations, wounds, cuts, bone and skull fractures, and other evidence of physical injury. Sexual abuse charges included felony sexual assault, fondling or touching in an obscene manner, sodomy, incest, and rape. Neglect cases reflected a judgment that the parents’ deficiencies in childcare were beyond those found acceptable by community and professional standards at the time and represented extreme failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention to children. For the current study, abuse/neglect was coded (0 = no abuse history, 1 = history of physical, sexual abuse, and/or neglect). The specific type of abuse or neglect was coded as present, regardless of whether or not the person had experienced other types of abuse as well. N = 31) of the abuse/neglect group experienced more than one type of e variable international affective picture system (iaps, lang, bradley, & cuthbert, 2005) the iaps, a set of photos depicting positive, negative, or neutral content, has been used as a paradigm for studying the processing of emotional stimuli (bradley, greenwald, petry, & lang, 1992). Research suggests that attention is more likely to be directed to a stimulus with a motivational significance to an individual (e. In addition, several researchers have found that emotion has an enhancing effect on memory (e. Therefore, in the iaps recognition task, participants should be more accurate in recognizing positively and negatively valenced pictures compared to neutral pictures and deficits in recognizing emotionally valenced pictures may suggest that the participant failed to attend to the emotional cues in the picture. In this conceptualization, recognition is a marker of vigilance for emotional latest version of the iaps (lang et al. Out of the total 942 digital still photos that comprise the iaps library, a total of 24 images, 8 neutral and 16 emotional (8 positive, 8 negative) were chosen using valence ratings obtained from prior validation studies (see appendix a for the iaps numbers, a brief title for the image, and image valences for all images used in this study). Each of these 24 images had a novel partner image similar in content and, when possible, matched on emotional valence that was used in the recognition task. Table 2intercorrelation matrix of all variablesordinary least squares (ols) regressions were conducted to determine whether child abuse and neglect predicted potential mediators (psychopathology and iq) and recognition accuracy. Was used to conduct structural equation modeling (sem) to examine the role of potential mediators of the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect and picture recognition accuracy. Abuse and neglect and recognition accuracytable 3 presents findings regarding accuracy in emotion recognition by group (abuse/neglect vs. Control) and type of maltreatment (any physical abuse, any sexual abuse, and any neglect vs. Indicating that individuals with a history of childhood abuse/neglect were less accurate in recognizing pictures than those without a history of childhood abuse/neglect. The effect size and the mean recognition accuracy scores for physical and sexual abuse groups were similar to those for the neglect group, suggesting that the lack of significant findings for overall picture recognition accuracy for the physical and sexual abuse groups may have been due to the small sample size of these two 3regressions predicting picture recognition accuracy by group (abuse/neglect vs. Control) and type of abuse/neglectpicture valence and recognition accuracynegative, neutral, and positive picture recognition accuracy scores were also compared for group (abuse/neglect vs. Neither abuse/neglect in general or specific types of maltreatment predicted negative picture recognition accuracy. Interestingly, although not hypothesized, childhood sexual abuse predicted poorer performance on positive picture recognition, compared to controls (β =−0. Abuse and neglect and potential mediators: psychopathology, psychopathy, and iqthe next set of results examined the extent to which the independent variables (overall abuse/neglect and type of maltreatment) predicted the hypothesized mediators (psychopathology, psychopathy, and iq). The results in table 4 indicate that a history of child abuse and neglect significantly predicted increased symptoms of mdd (β = 0. The pattern of results for the sexual abuse group was the same as for the physical abuse group (see table 4).

Control) and type of abuse/neglect as predictors of psychopathology and iqstructural equation modelsoverall picture recognition accuracy separate models were tested for each potential mediator, with controls for age, race, sex, and ses (see table 5) for abuse/neglect overall and for neglect specifically. We did not test these mediation models for physical and sexual abuse because the results of the earlier analyses indicated that they were not significant predictors of picture recognition 5group (abuse/neglect overall vs. Child abuse and neglect overall, the first column of table 5 shows that the effect of child abuse/neglect on psychopathology and iq was consistent with bivariate relationships described. Looking at columns 3 and 4, it can be seen that the introduction of iq had a significant mediation effect and reduced the effect of child maltreatment on overall accuracy in emotion processing to non-significance, suggesting that child abuse and neglect influences picture recognition accuracy through its effects on iq. Goodness of fit indices for the model including child abuse and neglect overall and iq as a mediator were χ2(4) = 8. Again, the introduction of iq produced a significant mediation effect and reduced the effect of child maltreatment on emotion processing to non-significance, suggesting that child abuse and neglect influences picture recognition accuracy through its effects on iq. In contrast, the models including each of the other potential mediators (mdd, dysthymia, ptsd, gad, and psychopathy) did not yield fit indices in the acceptable range and, therefore, the paths were not sionthis is the first prospective study of emotion processing accuracy in individuals with documented cases of childhood abuse and neglect who were followed up and assessed in middle adulthood. As hypothesized, these findings showed that individuals with a history of childhood abuse and/or neglect were less accurate in processing affective pictures than those without such a history. In addition, these results showed that childhood histories of abuse/neglect in general and neglect and sexual abuse in particular predicted deficits in positive, but not negative, picture recognition. These results were unexpected, but it is possible that these previously abused and neglected individuals have developed negative worldviews that might have prevented them from recognizing positive emotions. It is also possible that they have received and perceived less positive emotions during their lives, making it more difficult in adulthood to recognize and distinguish positive contrast to our hypotheses, the processing of negatively valenced pictures did not differ between maltreated and control groups and specifically for individuals with histories of physical abuse and neglect. It is also possible that these extra cues enabled these individuals to compensate for had specifically hypothesized that physically abused children would have problems with negative emotion pictures, but the results did not support this hypothesis. On first glance, one might attribute this result to the smaller sample size for the physically abused group and interpret the lack of deficits in negative emotion processing as a power problem. However, inspection of the small effect size suggests that low power was not the case, and the significant finding that adults with a history of childhood physical abuse were less accurate in processing neutral affective pictures. Another possibility is that individuals with histories of physical abuse might have been more likely to identify neutral stimuli as negative, based on a negative attribution bias (dodge, pettit, bates, & valente, 1995). Future research will need to examine these issues more gh it was hypothesized that the emotion processing deficits in previously abused and neglected children might be the result of psychopathology (generalized anxiety disorder, ptsd, dysthymia, and major depressive disorder) or psychopathy, we found that lifetime symptoms of mdd and gad assessed at age 29 predicted overall emotion recognition accuracy at mean age 47. Interestingly, these new findings are consistent with the previous research on psychopathology and emotion perception in clinical samples. However, these two forms of psychopathology (mdd and gad) did not account for the relationship between child abuse/neglect and picture recognition accuracy. 2008) with children that suggested that maltreatment is uniquely related to emotion processing deficits regardless of ptsd was also expected that psychopathy would predict deficits in emotion perception, although we did not find this to be the case. For example, one might wonder whether there is something about psychopaths who get caught and are incarcerated that influences the emotion perception results indicated that only iq played a significant role as a mediator between child maltreatment and emotion processing accuracy in adulthood. It is also possible that the task here may have demanded more cognitive skills than other types of emotion processing tasks and, therefore, maltreated individuals with lower iqs might have been particularly gh these findings provide important information about the effects of child abuse and neglect on emotion processing, some limitations should be noted. First, the findings are based on cases of childhood abuse and neglect drawn from official court records and most likely represent the most extreme cases processed in the system. Second, cases that came to the attention of the courts are skewed toward the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum and, therefore, these results cannot be generalized to abused and neglected children who grew up in middle- or upper-class homes. Third, the data were from cases of abuse and neglect that occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the midwest part of the united states. Research should attempt to replicate these findings in samples from other time periods and geographic regions. However, these cases of child abuse and neglect are from the late 1960s and early 1970s are comparable in demographic characteristics to the kinds of cases being processed by child protection services across the country. Therefore, although the temporal relationship in the present study is appropriate to examine the mediating role of intelligence, it is possible that iq assessed in childhood or adolescence may have shown a different relationship to emotion picture accuracy than iq assessed in young adulthood. Unfortunately, we are not able to explore these possibilities with our existing e these limitations, the present study builds on previous research on emotion processing and childhood maltreatment in several ways.

First, by studying affective picture recognition rather than emotion perception ability, this study examines another aspect of emotion processing that involves more basic attentional processes to emotionally salient environmental cues. This aspect of emotion processing has broader implications for daily emotional functioning in that it suggests deficits in attending to various emotional cues in the environment rather than just faces in particular. Second, by studying an adult sample, this study showed that effects of childhood abuse/neglect on emotion processing extend until middle adulthood, although it would be worthwhile to have multiple assessments over time to rule out competing explanations for improvement (or lack thereof) in emotion processing skills. Third, this study examined effects of different types of maltreatment on emotion processing and found victims of childhood neglect and sexual abuse had difficulty processing positive pictures. Fourth, the current study suggests that psychopathology and psychopathy do not significantly mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotion processing, although it was clear that certain forms of psychopathology did have an impact on emotion processing accuracy. Lastly, this study adds to the existing literature by suggesting that intelligence may mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotion processing. Therefore, research and interventions that target emotional processing deficits in victims of childhood maltreatment must consider and take into account the possible presence of intellectual ledgmentsthis research was supported in part by grants from eunice kennedy shriver nichd (hd40774), nimh (mh49467 and mh58386), nij (86-ij-cx-0033 and 89-ij-cx-0007), nida (da17842 and da10060), niaaa (aa09238 and aa11108), and the doris duke charitable foundation to the second author. Child maltreatment, attachment, and the self system: emergence of an internal state lexicon in toddlers at high social risk. A selective impairment in the processing of sad and fearful expressions in children with psychopathic tendencies. Affective facial expression processing in young children who have experienced maltreatment during the first year of life: an event-related potential study. Social information- processing patterns partially mediate the effect of early physical abuse on later conduct problems. A prospective analysis of the relationship between reported child maltreatment and special education eligibility among poor children. Moral development: the association between maltreatment and young children’s prosocial behaviors and moral transgressions. A 12-year prospective study of the long-term effects of early child physical maltreatment on psychological, behavioral, and academic problems in adolescence. Adolescents’ ability to read different emotional faces relates to their history of maltreatment and type of psychopathology. Long-term physical and mental health consequences of childhood physical abuse: results from a large population-based sample of men and women. Early neglect and abuse predict diurnal cortisol patterns in adults: a study of international adoptees. Child abuse, neglect and adult behavior: research design and findings on criminality, violence, and child abuse. A prospective investigation of major depressive disorder and comorbidity in abused and neglected children grown up. Article | pubreader | epub (beta) | pdf (160k) | ncbi web site requires javascript to tionresourceshow toabout ncbi accesskeysmy ncbisign in to ncbisign l listhhs author abuse negl. Article | pubreader | epub (beta) | pdf (160k) | ch paper nal abuse research papers show the psychological affects of emotional abuse on a child or an adult that is a victim of nal abuse is a type of psychological abuse that causes trauma and mental illness. Many people assume that if a woman or man is not being physically abused, they are not suffering from abuse. However, when you research emotional abuse, it will be clearly revealed that emotional abuse is just as damaging as physical of emotional nal abuse can be many types of verbal abuse or actions. A few more common are:Yelling, as in spousal g a person demeaning names, as in child g for problems outside of the scope of control lding love, as in domestic cting access to family and friends, as in elder ging relationships and -esteem and emotional times emotional abuse is a slow breaking down of a person’s self-worth or self- esteem no matter how emotionally intelligent they are. Self-esteem is reduced to such a low point that one feels they cannot live without the abuser. This is the state in which the emotional abuser is at his or her pinnacle of embarking on research on emotional abuse, be sure to keep in mind that in the american family emotional abuse is both a male and female problem. While females in a relationship are more likely to be victims of emotional abuse, many men also are victims. Emotional abuse is one area that a woman can abuse a man and exert power over him to counteract her inability to physically abuse a person stronger than of emotional logical warning signs of emotional abuse include:Related research paper ns in social ogy term to write a research paper on emotional page is designed to show you how to write a research project on the topic you see to the left.

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