Childhood Maltreatment and Impulsivity: A Meta-Analysis and Recommendations for Future Study

Abstract

Both childhood maltreatment and impulsivity have been implicated in a broad array of negative public health outcomes and have been much studied in relation to each other. Characterizing this relationship, and the processes underlying it, are important for informing intervention efforts targeting this association and its psychopathological sequelae. The current review presented a systematic meta-analysis of the empirical literature on childhood maltreatment and impulsivity. In all, 55 eligible studies were identified and included in this review. General support was found for a positive association between childhood maltreatment, including its specific subtypes, and general trait impulsivity, with pooled effect sizes ranging from small in the case of childhood sexual abuse (OR = 1.59 [95% CI = 1.38-1.84]) to medium-to-large in the case of childhood emotional abuse (OR = 3.10 [95% CI = 2.27-4.23]). Support for a relationship between childhood maltreatment and laboratory-based measures of impulsive behavior was generally lacking. The current findings must be interpreted with a degree of caution, given several methodological limitations characterizing much of the empirical literature. Recommendations for addressing these limitations and directions for future research are provided.

Long-term outcomes of childhood sexual abuse: an umbrella review

“…A meta-analysis of 217 publications has reported a global prevalence of 12% on the basis of 331 independent samples comprising about 10 million individuals. 1 Studies have reported associations between childhood sexual abuse and many psychosocial and health-related outcomes, including psychosocial problems, 2,3 self-harm, 4 psychiatric disorders, [5][6][7] and physical health diagnoses such as HIV 8 and obesity. 9 These reports have raised important questions about the extent of association between childhood sexual abuse and long-term outcomes in adulthood, the relative effects of childhood sexual abuse on different outcomes, and the quality of the current research base.…”

Impulsive Behavior as a Mediator Between Childhood Maltreatment and Emotional Disorders

“…Also, this possibility is increased by the hereditary nature of impulsivity in children with impulsive parents. In other words, parents who have been exposed to wrong parenting practices and maltreatment are more likely to have impulsive children (8). Generally, in exposure to childhood maltreatment and abuse, the developing part of the brain is the most affected part, that is, the hippocampus from birth until the age of two years, the amygdala in early childhood, and the prefrontal cortex during adolescence.…”

“…Generally, in exposure to childhood maltreatment and abuse, the developing part of the brain is the most affected part, that is, the hippocampus from birth until the age of two years, the amygdala in early childhood, and the prefrontal cortex during adolescence. It is argued that poor development of the frontal cortex during adolescence, compared to other periods of development, is strongly correlated with the experience of abuse and impulsivity (8,19).…”

“…Childhood abuse is a traumatic experience, associated with various types of abuse and neglect (physical, sexual, and emotional) (8). It leads to altered physiological responses to stressful stimuli, adversely affecting the future socialization of children (9).…”

Introduction to the Special Issue on Understanding Neurobiological Implication of Maltreatment: From Preschool to Emerging Adulthood

“…Impulsivity, the focus of the next paper (Hallowell et al, 2019), is a multifactorial construct implicated in substance use disorders (Lee, Hoppenbrouwers, & Franken, 2019) and child maltreatment (Liu, 2019). In this study, Hallowell and colleagues (2019) investigated the impact of child maltreatment on impulsivity via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a verbal working memory task in a sample of emerging adult females (ages 18–25 years).…”