Gender moderates the relationship between childhood abuse and internalizing and substance use disorders later in life: a cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough some studies examined the moderating role of gender in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and mental disorders later in life, a number of them examined the effects of only one or two types of maltreatment on an individual mental disorder, for instance, depression, substance use. It is of considerable clinical and theoretical importance to have in-depth understanding what roles of different types of childhood abuse play out in a wide range of mental disorders among women and men using well accepted instruments measuring abuse and mental disorders. The present study aimed to examine this issue using a large nationally representative population sample to explore the gender effect of different types of childhood abuse in mental disorders, and assess the moderating role of gender in the abuse-mental disorder relationship.MethodsUsing data from the Canadian Community Health Survey 2012: Mental Health we sought to answer this question. Respondents with information on childhood maltreatment prior to age 16 were selected (N = 23, 395).ResultsWe found: i) strong associations between childhood abuse frequency and gender; ii) significant differences between men and women in terms of mental disorders; iii) strong associations between childhood abuse and mental disorders; and, iv) gender moderated the role of childhood abuse history on adulthood mental disorders. Females with a history of sexual abuse and/or exposure to interpersonal violence were at a greater risk of alcohol abuse or dependence later in life.ConclusionsIntervention should occur as early as possible, and should help female victims of childhood sexual abuse and/or exposure to interpersonal violence, and their families to build more constructive ways to effectively reduce the negative affects of these experiences. Recognition of the moderating role of gender on the relationship between childhood abuse history and mental disorders later in life may aid clinicians and researchers in providing optimal health services.

From Risk to Resilience: How Lifestyle Factors Interact with Early-Life Trauma, Genetic Polymorphisms, and Stress, in Predicting Risk for Depression

“…As frequently observed, the present investigation revealed that females reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than did males, and, as will be discussed shortly, several predictors of this dimorphism were detected, which is in line with past research (Altemus, Sarvaiya, & Epperson, 2014;Halbreich & Kahn, 2007). Consistent with earlier reports, sexual trauma was more prevalent among females than males (Briere & Elliott, 2003;Maikovich-Fong & Jaffee, 2010;Meng & D'Arcy, 2016;Stoltenborgh, Van Ijzendoorn, Euser, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2011;Waal et al, 2017). Although there is limited research concerning sex differences regarding maltreatment and emotional trauma, in the present investigation, these forms of trauma occurred more among females than males.…”

“…Although there is limited research concerning sex differences regarding maltreatment and emotional trauma, in the present investigation, these forms of trauma occurred more among females than males. Significant sex differences in physical abuse was not observed, which is in line with earlier research (Briere & Elliott, 2003), although the majority of studies indicated that males experienced more physical abuse during childhood than did females (Meng & D'Arcy, 2016;Thompson, Kingree, & Desai, 2004).…”

The Impact of Childhood Maltreatment on Age of Onset of Alcohol Use Disorder in Women

“…Childhood maltreatment has repeatedly been shown to have a negative impact on mental health outcomes in adulthood [1,2]. For example, it increases the risk of psychiatric disorders such as depression [1,[3][4][5], bipolar disorder [6], post-traumatic stress disorder [1,4] and suicide attempts [1,4], as well as alcohol use disorder (AUD) [1,3,7,8].…”

“…Previous studies of pa-tients with AUD have mostly focused on sexual and physical abuse [2,4,7,[12][13][14][15]. It has been proposed that emotional abuse has received less attention due to difficulties in defining and identifying the concept of emotional abuse, as well as the fact that it is not considered a crime [16].…”

“…AUD has been associated with childhood maltreatments in both men and women, but with varying degrees across studies [2,18,20]. Women with a history of childhood maltreatment have also been shown to exhibit a faster transition from non-problematic drinking to riskdrinking than women not exposed to such maltreatment [13,21].…”