Rationale: Studies show a direct, dose-response link between childhood maltreatment and insomnia in adulthood. Insomnia is often a precursor of depressive and anxiety disorders. Moreover, insomnia...Show moreRationale: Studies show a direct, dose-response link between childhood maltreatment and insomnia in adulthood. Insomnia is often a precursor of depressive and anxiety disorders. Moreover, insomnia may be an important transdiagnostic factor in the impact of childhood maltreatment on depression and anxiety. The association of childhood maltreatment subtypes with adulthood insomnia in clinical and control populations remains unclear. Objectives: To investigate the contributions of the (1) overall severity of childhood maltreatment and (2) severity of childhood maltreatment subtypes to the long-term burden of adulthood insomnia with and without lifetime depressive and/or anxiety disorders. Methods: Data (N = 1609; nclinical = 1285) was obtained from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, a naturalistic multi-site project containing six assessment waves over nine years. Measurements included the Composite Interview Diagnostic Instrument - lifetime version, the Women's Health Initiative Insomnia Rating Scale, and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - short form. Analyses included separate multiple linear regressions controlling for gender. Findings: Overall childhood maltreatment correlated positively with the long-term burden of insomnia among clinical and control samples. All maltreatment subtypes were associated positively with the insomnia burden in the clinical sample, and only emotional abuse with the burden among controls. Females showed a higher burden than males in analyses with subtypes among controls. Conclusions: Further research is needed to verify the generalizability and robustness of results and explore potential risk/resilience moderators of this link. Clinical work may target insomnia prevention strategies among adults exposed to childhood maltreatment, especially females and individuals with lifetime depression and/or anxiety.Show less
BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment is a global health problem affecting children across the globe, that can result in serious impairments in later life, taking the form of serious psychological...Show moreBACKGROUND: Child maltreatment is a global health problem affecting children across the globe, that can result in serious impairments in later life, taking the form of serious psychological disorders or impoverished social skills. Empathy belongs to one of these fundamental skills. The current study aims to replicate previous findings that childhood maltreatment history is associated with lower empathy levels. Generally, research distinguishes between affective and cognitive empathy. Hence, this study explores possible differences in impact of child maltreatment history on cognitive versus affective empathy. METHOD: This cross-sectional design involved 218 healthy participants between 18 and 79 years of age. To assess child maltreatment, the Dutch version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was used. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) were used to assess both cognitive and affective empathy. The sample was divided into maltreated and non-maltreated participants, by applying cut-off scores, and where compared with multivariate ANOVAs on MET mean arousal level, MET total accuracy, perspective taking (PT), empathic concern (EC), fantasy (FS) and personal distress (PD). RESULTS: The present study failed to replicate previous findings of associations between child maltreatment and lowered empathy. Furthermore, a difference in impact on the two forms of empathy was not identified. However, after the exclusion of outliers, an indication was found for impaired cognitive empathy in individuals with maltreatment history. DISCUSSION: The present study shows that possible selective effects of child maltreatment on either cognitive or affective empathy may exist. Knowing how maltreatment differentially affects individuals in later adulthood, can help to optimize both prevention measures as well as treatments dealing with the consequence of child maltreatment, e.g. individual training focusing on either type of empathy. Limitations of the present study are discussed.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2017-09-01T00:00:00Z
The relationship between child maltreatment and physiological reactivity to infant crying was evaluated using measures of heart rate (HR) in a sample of 30 maltreating and 24 non-maltreating...Show moreThe relationship between child maltreatment and physiological reactivity to infant crying was evaluated using measures of heart rate (HR) in a sample of 30 maltreating and 24 non-maltreating mothers. For the maltreating group, child maltreatment had been substantiated. During a standardized cry paradigm, mothers listened to nine cry sounds of three different pitches. Each fundamental frequency was presented three times, over three blocks. Mothers rated the urgency of each sound and indicated what their caregiving responses would be. Maltreating mothers showed a lower HR reactivity than non-maltreating mothers to the first and second block of cry sounds as compared to baseline. A lack of functional physiological reactivity when required may explain their impaired ability to respond adequately to their children.Show less
