The Association Between Child Maltreatment and Loneliness Across the Lifespan: A Systematic Review and Multilevel Meta-Analysis

Abstract

While there is evidence that child maltreatment is positively associated with loneliness, the strength of this association is not yet clear. It is also unclear whether the magnitude and statistical significance of this association varies across groups of individuals. Therefore, this meta-analysis examines whether there are differences in loneliness between individuals with and without maltreatment histories, and which factors may influence the association between child maltreatment and loneliness. A three-level meta-analysis was conducted on 52 studies reporting 116 effect sizes ( N = 1,705,493; M age = 30.93; 49.6% females). Results showed a medium overall effect ( g = 0.45, p < .001, 95% CI [0.36, 0.53]), indicating that individuals with maltreatment histories, on average, feel lonelier than individuals without maltreatment histories. Moderator analyses showed that effect sizes were larger for emotional abuse and emotional neglect as compared to other types of child maltreatment and decreased when participants were older at the time of loneliness assessment. These findings suggest that individuals with maltreatment histories, especially those who have been emotionally abused and/or emotionally neglected, are vulnerable to experiencing loneliness across the lifespan. The results also suggest that feelings of loneliness warrant attention in prevention and intervention programs for individuals with maltreatment histories.

Association of loneliness and social network size in adulthood with childhood maltreatment: Analyses of a population-based and a clinical sample

“…Regarding specific forms of CM, a history of emotional neglect and emotional abuse seems to be particularly associated with perceived loneliness according to our results which is in line with the meta-analytic findings of [ 50 ]. Emotional neglect is the failure of caretakers or parents to satisfy a child’s emotional needs such as belonging.…”

“…Our results of a close relationship between loneliness and CM are in line with a recent meta-analysis that found that individuals with a history of CM feel lonelier than individuals without a history of CM [50]. Therefore, CM may constitute a specific vulnerability factor to experience loneliness later in life via different pathways.…”

Loneliness is associated with retrospective self-reports of adverse childhood experiences – A replication study in Ethiopia

“…In our previous study, emotional neglect and emotional abuse, followed by physical neglect, showed the strongest associations with loneliness 24 . In a recent meta-analysis, de Heer et al 32 similarly observed greater effect sizes for emotional abuse and emotional neglect as compared to other forms of ACE. However, the etiological pathways from ACE to loneliness later in life still need to be elucidated.…”

Childhood Maltreatment is Linked to Larger Preferred Interpersonal Distances Towards Friends and Strangers Across the Globe

“…Importantly, associations between CM and CID did not differ between the friends and stranger condition, even though the approaching figure's effect on CID varied substantially between countries. This highlights that in the case of CM, CID might be generally, i.e., across different interaction partners, elevated, potentially impairing the development and maintenance of supportive social relationships (de Heer et al, 2022;Labella et al, 2018;Pfaltz et al, 2022).…”

“…Individuals exposed to CM are at increased risk for mental and physical disorders (Pfaltz et al, 2022). Moreover, CM has been linked to social dysfunction, including isolation, withdrawal (de-Heer et al, 2022), and an increased risk of affected children to be bullied, victimized (Xiao et al, 2021), and rejected by peers (Yoon, 2020). CM has further been linked to low levels of social support (Evans et al, 2013), elevated rates of separation and divorce, problems related to parenting, intimate partner aggression perpetration and victimization (Labella et al, 2018;White & Widom, 2003;Zamir, 2021), loneliness, and social isolation (Shevlin et al, 2015).…”