engleski

Relationship between childhood maltreatment and working memory deficits in adulthood

Childhood maltreatment may represent a risk factor for cognitive deficits in everyday life during adulthood (Hart & Rubia, 2012). The association between maltreatment and cognitive development has not been systematically investigated throughout the life cycle. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between exposure to maltreatment in childhood and working memory functioning in adulthood. A total of 376 females, between age of 16 and 67, participated in the study. Working memory performance was tested in 142 female participants with a history of different forms of maltreatment in childhood (M=2.517 ; IQR=1.000), and compared with performance of 234 non-maltreated females in childhood (M=1.980 ; IQR=0.767). Comprehensive Child Maltreatment Scales for Adults (Higgins & McCabe, 2001) was used to assesses five separate types of maltreatment experienced during childhood (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect, and witnessing family violence) and the existence of multi-type maltreatment, while working memory abilities were tested with Working Memory Questionnaire (Vallat- Azouvi, Pradat Diehl & Azouvi, 2012). According to the results of nonparametric Mann-Whitney test, physical abuse and witnessing family violence were the most common forms of maltreatment in childhood. Results have shown significant prediction of violence for various deficits in working memory. Psychological abuse and witnessing family violence had significant predictive power for specific deficit in working memory abilities. In general, the results show that traumatic childhood experiences—such as maltreatment –may cause cognitive changes in adults. The identification of such impairments provides an opportunity for implementation of specific interventions, in order to minimize the negative effects of child maltreatment.

Maltreatment ; cognitive function ; child ; working memory ; executive functions

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