New Research Shows Memory and Perception of Childhood Maltreatment Affects Future Mental Health
A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry has revealed that the way individuals remember and process childhood abuse and neglect has a greater impact on their mental health in later life than the actual experiences themselves.
Conducted by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London and City University New York, the study followed 1,196 participants up to the age of 40 to investigate how childhood maltreatment affects the development of emotional disorders in adulthood.
The findings of the study showed that young adults who retrospectively self-reported experiences of childhood maltreatment before the age of 12 had a greater number of depressive or anxiety episodes over the next decade compared to those who didn’t remember maltreatment, even if they had official court records.
Surprisingly, participants who had official records of childhood maltreatment but no retrospective recall of the experiences had a similar number of emotional disorder episodes in adulthood as those who had never experienced maltreatment.
The researchers emphasize that the way a person perceives and remembers experiences of childhood abuse or neglect has greater implications on future emotional disorders than the experiences themselves. This suggests that clinicians can use information provided by their clients to identify those at risk of developing mental health difficulties, even in the absence of documented evidence of childhood maltreatment.
Andrea Danese, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at King’s IoPPN and joint author of the study, explained, “The findings show that, even in the absence of documented evidence of childhood maltreatment, clinicians can use information provided by their clients to identify those at greater risk for subsequent mental health difficulties. The findings also suggest that early interventions that help cope with memories of abuse and/or neglect may prevent emotional problems later on.”
Participants in the study were interviewed about their self-reported retrospective experiences of childhood maltreatment as well as their current and past mental health. They were then re-interviewed to measure the course of depression and anxiety symptoms.
Further analysis revealed that the association between self-reported experiences of childhood maltreatment and a greater number of subsequent anxiety and depression episodes was partly explained by participants’ current and past mental health, reported during their first interview. The researchers posit that emotional disorders can negatively bias memories, making participants more likely to recall negative events.
By better understanding how memories of child maltreatment are maintained and exacerbated over time, researchers hope to develop effective interventions to address the impact of these memories on daily functioning and mental health.
The study is part of the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People, a collaboration between specialist clinicians from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and leading academics at King’s College London. This partnership aims to find new ways to predict, prevent, and treat mental health disorders in children and young people.
The research was supported by several organizations, including the National Institute of Mental Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Medical Research Council.