Background

A history of childhood maltreatment predicts poorer functioning in several domains during childhood, including executive function (EF). While there is also evidence of poorer EF in adults with a history of childhood trauma, results are mixed. Notable limitations of previous research are (a) the use of single indicators of EF, and/or (b) not consistently assessing whether childhood maltreatment predicts poorer EF beyond internalizing psychopathology.

Objective

We sought to overcome limitations of prior work by examining relationships between childhood maltreatment and EF in adulthood by using a latent factor of EF derived from multiple indicators and including psychopathology covariates in our analyses.

Participants and setting

The present study included a large sample of community adults (n = 489) who were oversampled for internalizing psychopathology symptoms.

Methods

Primary analyses examined whether childhood maltreatment (cumulative and subtypes) predicted EF using a latent factor approach and linear mixed effects models. Follow-up analyses assessed the impact of childhood maltreatment on EF beyond internalizing psychopathology symptoms and assessed whether gender moderated relationships between EF and childhood maltreatment.

Results

Greater cumulative maltreatment predicted poorer EF (B = -0.15), and emotional neglect emerged as a unique predictor of EF (B = -0.18). These results remained after controlling for psychopathology symptoms. Gender moderated the relationship between physical abuse and EF, with physical abuse predicting poorer EF among males (B = 0.30), but not females (B = -0.04).

Conclusions

Overall, results indicate that general EF deficits are related to a history of childhood maltreatment, which is not accounted for by internalizing psychopathology symptoms. Potential implications and future directions are discussed.

中文翻译：

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童年虐待预示着成年后执行功能较差，超出了内在化精神病理学的症状

背景

童年虐待史预示着童年时期在多个领域的功能较差，包括执行功能 (EF)。虽然也有证据表明有童年创伤史的成年人 EF 较差，但结果好坏参半。先前研究的显着局限性是（a）使用单一的 EF 指标，和/或（b）没有一致地评估儿童虐待是否预测除内在精神病理学之外的较差的 EF。

客观的

我们试图通过使用来自多个指标的 EF 潜在因素并在我们的分析中包括精神病理学协变量来检查儿童期虐待与成年 EF 之间的关系，从而克服先前工作的局限性。

参与者和设置

本研究包括大量社区成年人 ( n  = 489)，他们因内化精神病理学症状而被过度抽样。

方法

初步分析使用潜在因素方法和线性混合效应模型检查儿童虐待（累积和亚型）是否预测 EF。后续分析评估了儿童虐待对 EF 的影响，超越了内在的精神病理学症状，并评估了性别是否调节了 EF 与儿童虐待之间的关系。

结果

更大的累积虐待预示着较差的 EF ( B  = -0.15)，情绪忽视成为 EF 的独特预测因子 ( B  = -0.18)。在控制了精神病理学症状后，这些结果仍然存在。性别调节了身体虐待与 EF 之间的关系，身体虐待预测男性的 EF 较差（B  = 0.30），但女性则不然（B  = -0.04）。

结论

总体而言，结果表明，一般 EF 缺陷与儿童虐待史有关，这不能通过内化精神病理学症状来解释。讨论了潜在的影响和未来的方向。