New findings indicate that relying heavily on self-reported accounts of maltreatment is leading to a biased understanding of the issues faced by children and adolescents who have verifiable histories of maltreatment.
A study conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London and City University of New York has revealed that cognitive impairments linked to childhood maltreatment, especially neglect, have been significantly undervalued in earlier research.
This research, published in Lancet Psychiatry, emphasizes that the dependence on retrospective self-reports of maltreatment has created a skewed body of evidence that neglects the realities faced by children and young people with established records of maltreatment.
In this study, the researchers examined the links between court-documented childhood maltreatment and adults’ recollections of their experiences, regarding their cognitive skills. A total of 1,179 subjects were selected from an ongoing research cohort in the USA, and all were subjected to various cognitive ability tests as adults.
The results revealed that participants with official documentation of childhood maltreatment exhibited notable cognitive deficits across most tests when compared to those without such records. Conversely, individuals who self-reported maltreatment did not show similar cognitive deficits in comparison to their peers without reports.
Interestingly, the researchers observed inconsistencies across different maltreatment types. Those with confirmed experiences of neglect showed cognitive deficits, whereas participants with documented cases of physical and sexual abuse did not.
Andrea Danese, a Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at King’s IoPPN and co-author of the study, remarked, “While there are notable exceptions, the majority of research in this domain has depended on retrospective accounts of childhood maltreatment provided by adults. Our findings reveal that this dependence may have led to an underestimation of the cognitive challenges faced by individuals with documented maltreatment experiences, particularly related to neglect.
“Our study underscores the necessity of recognizing young individuals who have endured neglect so that appropriate support mechanisms can be established to alleviate negative impacts on their education and employment opportunities.”
Further investigation is essential to understand the reasons behind the cognitive deficits observed in those with documented neglect histories. The researchers propose that this might be linked to a lack of stimulation during childhood, the familial transmission of cognitive difficulties, or the influence of concurrent adversities like family poverty. Understanding the underlying mechanisms behind these associations will offer useful insights for developing effective interventions.
This study received funding from several institutions, including the National Institute of Justice, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute on Aging.