The Influence of Childhood Emotional Abuse On Adult Obesity

Background: Early life stress induces long-lasting changes in adulthood, such as psychiatric and metabolism abnormality. The prevalence of childhood emotional abuse in clinical obese subjects remains unclear.Method: A set of questionnaires, including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) was sent out. Clinical data from 37 obese subjects (Age: 29.65±5.35, Body Mass Index (BMI): 37.59±6.34) and 37 healthy subjects with normal body weight (Age: 31.35±10.84, BMI: 22.16±3.69) came into the investigation. Multiple mediation analysis was performed with BMI as the outcome variable, childhood trauma as the predictive variable. Depression, anxiety, and bulimia as the mediating variables.Result: Obese group reported higher childhood emotional abuse (t=2.157, p=0.034), worse mood state (anxiety: t=5.466, p<0.001; depression: t=2.220, p=0.030), and increased bulimia (t=3.400, p=0.001), when compared to healthy group. Childhood emotional abuse was positively associated with BMI (β = 1.312, 95% CI = 0.482−2.141). Anxiety and bulimia showed multiple mediating roles in the relationship of childhood emotional abuse and obesity (indirect effect = 0.739, 95% CI = 0.261−1.608), accounting for 56.33% of the total effect.Conclusion: Childhood emotional abuse may contribute to adulthood obesity, potentially mediated by anxiety and bulimia.

The Impact of Childhood Psychological Maltreatment on Mental Health Outcomes in Adulthood: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect are the least well-studied forms of childhood abuse due to difficulties in detection and definition. Available evidence suggests associations with multiple adulthood mental health problems in both clinical and non-clinical populations. This systematic review and meta-analysis (PROSPERO registration number CRD42020197833) explored the associations between childhood emotional abuse and neglect and various adulthood mental health problems based on eight databases. There were 79 English and 11 Chinese studies meeting inclusion criteria. The results suggested that childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect had positive associations with various adulthood mental health problems (d = 0.02-1.84) such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, suicide ideation, or suicide ideation or attempts, personality disorder, eating disorder and other psychological symptoms in the general population and across different geographical regions. Further, the findings suggested that compared with individuals in non-clinical populations, individuals in clinical populations were more likely to have experienced emotional abuse and neglect during their childhood. The review highlights the need for more research on emotional abuse and emotional neglect, especially in non-western countries and the elder populations. They further underline the importance of addressing issues related to childhood emotional abuse/neglect experiences for the prevention and treatment of mental health issues in adulthood.

The Relationship Between Childhood Emotional Abuse and Processing of Emotional Facial Expressions in Healthy Young Men: Event-Related Potential and Behavioral Evidence

Background: Individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment present with a deficiency in emotional processing in later life. Most studies have focused mainly on childhood physical or sexual abuse; however, childhood emotional abuse, a core issue underlying different forms of childhood maltreatment, has received relatively little attention. The current study explored whether childhood emotional abuse is related to the impaired processing of emotional facial expressions in healthy young men.Methods: The emotional facial processing was investigated in a classical gender discrimination task while the event-related potentials (ERPs) data were collected. Childhood emotional abuse was assessed by a Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) among 60 healthy young men. The relationship between the score of emotional abuse and the behavioral and the ERP index of emotional facial expression (angry, disgust, and happy) were explored.Results: Participants with a higher score of childhood emotional abuse responded faster on the behavioral level and had a smaller P2 amplitude on the neural level when processing disgust faces compared to neutral faces.Discussion: Individuals with a higher level of childhood emotional abuse may quickly identify negative faces with less cognitive resources consumed, suggesting altered processing of emotional facial expressions in young men with a higher level of childhood emotional abuse.

Childhood maltreatment predicts subsequent anxiety symptoms among Chinese adolescents: the role of the tendency of coping styles

Childhood maltreatment may have an influence on anxiety symptoms and coping styles. This longitudinal study aimed to estimate the prospective associations between different types of childhood maltreatment and anxiety symptoms among Chinese adolescents, with a particular focus on investigating whether these associations vary by the tendency of coping styles. Data were from the Longitudinal Study of Adolescents’ Mental and Behavioral Well-being Research. The baseline sample included 1957 participants (response rate: 99.03%) and followed up at 1-year later (n = 1836, retention rate: 93.8%). Anxiety symptoms, childhood maltreatment, the tendency of coping styles, morning cortisol level, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and other demographics were measured. Overall, the mean age of the baseline students was 13.6 (SD: 1.5) years. The final results showed that childhood emotional abuse (unstandardized β-estimate = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.07–0.18), physical abuse (unstandardized β-estimate = 0.08, 95% CI = 0.01–0.16), and sexual abuse (unstandardized β-estimate = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.04–0.29) were positively associated with anxiety symptoms at follow-up after adjusting for significant covariates at baseline. Additionally, the stratified analyses demonstrated that only among students with negative coping styles, childhood emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse were associated with subsequent anxiety symptoms; the differences between the positive and negative coping style strata were significant (P < 0.05). Childhood maltreatment appears to be a predictor of anxiety symptoms among adolescents, and the tendency of coping styles may have a moderating role in these longitudinal associations. The efforts to prevent anxiety symptoms are recommended to be focused on adolescents with the experience of childhood maltreatment and negative coping styles.