Emotion Reactivity and Regulation in Maltreated Children: A Meta‐Analysis

Abstract

The many adverse effects of child maltreatment make the scientific investigation of this phenomenon a matter of vital importance. Although the relationship between maltreatment and problematic emotion reactivity and regulation has been studied, the strength and specificity of these associations are not yet clear. We examine the magnitude of the maltreatment-child-emotion reactivity/regulation link. Studies with substantiated maltreatment involving children aged up to 18 were included, along with a smaller number of longitudinal studies (58 papers reviewed, encompassing more than 11,900 children). In comparison to nonmaltreated children, maltreated children experience more negative emotions, behave in a manner indicative of more negative emotion, and display emotion dysregulation. We outline several theoretical implications of our results.

Evidence for dissociable cognitive and neural pathways from poverty versus maltreatment to deficits in emotion regulation

“…Exposure to threat in childhood is associated with altered processing of emotional stimuli (e.g., generalization of fear to neutral stimuli), and heightened emotional reactivity (i.e., elevated emotional and neural responses to emotional cues) ( Lavi et al, 2019 ; Pine et al, 2005 ; Pollak and Tolley-Schell, 2003 ). These effects are long-lasting; childhood TEs are related to biased attention and increased emotional reactivity toward negatively-valanced emotional stimuli during childhood and adulthood ( Dannlowski et al, 2012 , 2013 ; Iffland and Neuner, 2020 ; McLaughlin et al, 2014 , 2019 ; Pollak, 2008 ; Sheridan and McLaughlin, 2014 ).…”

A systematic review to investigate whether the current family court process in Scotland, leads to emotionally functional adults in cases of adverse childhood experiences.

“…These studies demonstrate the pervasiveness and regular occurrence of childhood adversity in the UK, therefore, should similar prevalence rates be determined in the forthcoming government study, then ACEs present a significant psychosocial, medical, and public policy problem. (Lavi, Katz, Ozer & Gross, 2019) and relationship problems (Buss et al, 2012). Heleniak et al, (2016) argue that despite the range of processes involved in the development of psychopathology among children who have suffered maltreatment, a key contributing factor is undoubtedly linked to disruptions in emotion regulation.…”

“…Heleniak et al, (2016) argue that despite the range of processes involved in the development of psychopathology among children who have suffered maltreatment, a key contributing factor is undoubtedly linked to disruptions in emotion regulation. Emotion regulation refers to the way people influence the emotions they have, when they experience them, and how they express them (Lavi, Katz, Ozer & Gross, 2019).…”

Linking preschoolers’ parasympathetic activity to maternal early adversity and child behavior: An intergenerational perspective

“…While evidence for the intergenerational impact of trauma continues to build, an exhaustive body of literature supports the link between one's own exposure to violence or adversity and increased risk for maladaptive outcomes, including high negative affect and difficulties with emotion regulation (Lavi, Katz, Ozer, & Gross, 2019). Childhood violence exposure is also associated with differences in RSA activity (Hinnant, El‐Sheikh, Keiley, & Buckhalt, 2013; Oosterman, de Schipper, Fisher, Dozier, & Schuengel, 2010), and this relation is attributed to biological embedding, or the process by which adversity gets under the skin, altering physiology across stress response systems, including the autonomic nervous system (Berens et al., 2017).…”