A new study has found that experiencing abuse in childhood is associated with greater cognitive difficulties in adulthood than previously thought. The study was conducted by researchers from King’s College London and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at the City University of New York. The study was published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

Difficulties in cognitive or intellectual activity involving thinking, reasoning and memory, which are associated with childhood abuse, particularly neglect, have been “grossly underestimated in previous studies,” the researchers said. This is due to biases in previous studies that suggest an overreliance on retrospective self-reports of abuse in research has resulted in a biased evidence base that overlooks the challenges faced by children and young people exposed to abuse.

Andrea Daynes, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at King’s College London and co-author of the study, said: “Although there are some important exceptions, the majority of research in this area has relied on retrospective reports of childhood abuse from adult participants. Our study has shown that this reliance on retrospective reports has led researchers and clinicians to potentially underestimate the extent to which individuals with documented cases of abuse, and particularly neglect, may be experiencing cognitive deficits.”

The researchers tested the relative relationship between court-recorded facts about childhood abuse and the facts recalled by adults with cognitive abilities. According to a report in Medical Express, a group of 1,179 participants were identified from an ongoing cohort in the US. All participants took a variety of tests to assess their cognitive abilities in adult life.

The researchers found that participants with an official record of childhood abuse showed, on average, greater cognitive decline across most tests than those without. In contrast, participants who retrospectively self-reported abuse did not show a decline compared to those who did not report.

“Our study highlights the importance of identifying young people who have experienced neglect, so that appropriate support can be provided, for example, to reduce negative outcomes in education and employment,” Denes said.

As Medical Express reports, more research is needed to understand why individuals with a documented history of neglect tend to have cognitive deficits. Researchers suspect this may be due to a lack of stimulation in childhood, familial transmission of cognitive challenges, and/or the role of other experiences that often co-exist with neglect, such as family poverty. Disentangling the mechanisms underlying the observed relationships will provide helpful insights for developing effective interventions.

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