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New research suggests that the cognitive difficulties associated with
childhood maltreatment, and particularly neglect, have been grossly
underestimated in previous studies.
(URL) https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/childhood-maltreatment-is-associated-with-... (https://www.kcl.ac.uk)
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|u/Wagamaga - 1 month
|
|The research, published in Lancet Psychiatry, suggests that the
|overreliance on retrospective self-reports of maltreatment in research
|has resulted in a biased evidence base that overlooks the challenges
|faced by children and young people with documented exposure to
|maltreatment. Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology &
|Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London and City University of New
|York tested the relative associations of court-documented exposure to,
|and adult recall of, childhood maltreatment with cognitive abilities
|within the same individuals. 1179 participants were identified from an
|ongoing cohort in the USA. All participants underwent a variety of tests
|in order to assess their cognitive abilities in adult life. Researchers
|found that participants with official records of childhood maltreatment
|showed, on average, cognitive deficits across most tests undertaken
|compared to those without records. In contrast, the participants who
|retrospectively self-reported maltreatment did not demonstrate deficits
|when compared with those without reports. [https://www.thelancet.com
|/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(24)00224-4/fulltext](https://www.
|thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(24)00224-4/fulltext)
|u/Threlyn - 1 month
|
|So the primary finding is that those who have been officially diagnosed
|with maltreatment on record demonstrate a significant decrease in
|cognitive function, while those who only self-reported maltreatment did
|not suffer from cognitive difficulties. This suggests to me that the
|system is actually doing a good job of identifying those who are at risk
|of cognitive dysfunction later in life because these people all have
|official diagnoses of maltreatment. Meanwhile, self-reports,
|unsurprisingly, don't really predict that, suggesting that the subjects
|aren't really accurate in diagnosing their own maltreatment (at least
|the type of maltreatment that causes cognitive problems)
|u/pinupcthulhu - 1 month
|
|>those who have been officially diagnosed with maltreatment on record
|demonstrate a significant decrease in cognitive function The study
|wasn't based on diagnoses, but whether there was a documented *legal
|case* of abuse. That tells me that maltreatment to the extent that
|there's a court case opened is so bad that it causes cognitive decline
|in the child. Which makes sense, given the severity of the abuse cases
|that make it to court: you need lots of physical evidence for a court
|case to succeed like several broken bones, repeated photos of battery
|from the hospital, severe "accidents" that only happen when the child
|is with one parent, etc.  Emotional abuse and some types of neglect
|are difficult to prove because of a lack of physical evidence, and so
|court cases are rare for that kind of abuse. Those would have been
|deemed self-reported instead of the court-proven cases.  This means
|that certain types of abuses cause more obviously severe *cognitive*
|outcomes than others; it doesn't mean that the other kinds of abuse
|aren't that bad, or don't cause would-be Einsteins to become average
|Joes, which would also be difficult to prove. I agree that this
|means the system is (mostly) working as intended, though. 
|u/sutree1 - 1 month
|
|Or those children with better baseline cognitive skills are better at
|masking the abuse?
|u/Cleasstra - 1 month
|
|Thank you for stating this as an important factor possibly looked
|over. I was amazing at masking any abuse and still am because it was
|ingrained in me to do so. No one would even think of me being abused
|due to how well I masked it, and now as an adult when I am finally
|admitting and realizing a lot of my issues stemmed from childhood
|abuse, people are generally shocked and sometimes don't even believe
|it due to how well I masked it.
|u/Aweomow - 1 month
|
|That's very invalidating of them, some issues can't be masked, but
|a lot of them can be, you have a long time to learn how to act
|through example , and give the notion of having self-esteem and
|security, but that doesn't mean you feel that way. Masking in
|young age is a self preservation tactic, so they don't know
|they're actually getting at you.
|u/Unusual-Researcher33 - 1 month
|
|I have been through a very similar thing so know how you feel.best
|of luck to you
|u/daHaus - 1 month
|
|Or that they're self-aware enough to mitigate or compensate for it.
|u/Eunemoexnihilo - 1 month
|
|Break a brain, and it stops working right. Weird.
|u/sweetangel273 - 1 month
|
|So, it’s saying that only people with court documented neglect have
|cognitive issues?
|u/Neutronenster - 1 month
|
|No, it’s calling into question the trustworthiness of subjective self-
|reports for assessing abuse severity in the context of scientific
|research.
|u/sweetangel273 - 1 month
|
|Ok that makes sense. I only ask due to what I’ve read about
|narcissistic abuse. Sometimes that doesn’t get court documentation.
|And I’m not sure a court would document beyond physical abuse and
|neglect. For instance, emotional abuse. But, maybe that highlights
|that there needs to be an expansion in the types of abuse
|investigated.
|u/resumethrowaway222 - 1 month
|
|In that case what the study indicates is that type of abuse
|doesn't result in cognitive decline. This result makes a lot of
|sense because the causal link between physical abuse or neglect
|and poor brain development is obvious. Not so much for emotional
|abuse.
|u/No-Break753 - 1 month
|
|You meant neglecting and overlooking baby's or child's needs and
|low life conditions while saying "physical abuse or neglect" ?
|u/resumethrowaway222 - 1 month
|
|These cases in the study were severe enough for state
|intervention. So I think "abuse" probably means pretty heavy
|physical abuse which could potentially cause brain damage and
|"neglect" means severe conditions where the child might not be
|getting proper nutrition. And both of those things are known
|to cause cognitive issues.
|u/SpaztasticDryad - 1 month
|
|Neglect can also mean lack of socialization during
|development. Like the nonverbal kids who were "raised by
|wolves", kids found in the wilderness
|u/No-Break753 - 1 month
|
|I remember my one friend from highschool commented about
|my "alienated" existence. He gave same example you give,
|the kid who raised by wolves. I didn't even know if I was
|abused or neglected in my childhood, but now I am sure
|neglect existed to some degree. (maybe more than I
|realize) 
|u/SpaztasticDryad - 1 month
|
|I got called "child of the corn." By other rural kids
|referencing how ridiculously isolated I was. I am
|diagnosed with autism but I wonder if a lot of these
|issues aren't just not getting experience while my brain
|was developing
|u/No-Break753 - 1 month
|
|Do you experience another struggles related with
|autism like sensory processing problems and love for
|rigidity/routine or only social struggles? If you have
|another autism issues isolation's cause is more likely
|autism. 
|u/daHaus - 1 month
|
|They're wanting to use it to invalidate reports from people who were
|able to mask and counteract the harm it caused. It never ceases to
|amaze me how ready so many academics are to victim blame. It's almost
|like it's the path of least resistance. You don't actually have to
|solve anything.
|u/nothsadent - 1 month
|
|How does one counteract cognitive deficits originating in childhood?
|u/dx151 - 1 month
|
|So that's why I'm so stupid
|u/baHumbleinquisitor - 1 month
|
|Ironically, the solution is probably gradual maintenance of sleep,
|nutrition and exercise, rather than what people have been doing. When
|you get wrinkly skin and think "I better become a health nut!" You're
|doing it wrong. It's not that there's an age where it happens all at
|once; likely the signs of rapidly aging skin at 44 hint at a
|reprioritization of the guts, to stay alive, sacrificing proper
|resources to maintain the skin. Having it happen again around 60 could
|be the same case. Putting those groups under a magnifying glass to
|prove its happening is interesting; I think it suggests the biological
|clock is ticking to the tune of cellular turnover, rather than time.
|u/nontraditionalgeek - 1 month
|
|But don't you think there are other variables? Like first of all anyone
|who subjects a child to severe maltreatment likely has cognitive issues
|to begin with? So how can we say that the maltreatment is the cause of
|the issues and there isn't a large genetic component...not to mention
|the fact that I'm willing to bet a large number of these people weren't
|brought up with great socioeconomic stations, so again not in the best
|districts. There are tooooo many factors that can't be accounted for or
|controlled. I'm not saying it isn't a factor, but how can you determine
|the weight of something like this? I would really love for anyone to
|explain this to me better, I really want to get into research like this,
|but I constantly find my brain exploding because of the way causation is
|determined and presented as though it's obvious when it seems it would
|be truly impossible to prove.
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