The Neurophysiological Embedding of Child Maltreatment: Current State of the Literature and Future Directions for Research

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Child maltreatment is a toxic stressor that can become embedded at multiple levels of biological organization, including the parasympathetic (PNS) and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. The first two presentations in the proposed symposium will present the results of meta-analyses of studies examining the association between maltreatment and homeostatic PNS and HPA-axis activity, respectively. As detailed in the abstracts for these presentations, the results of the preliminary analyses suggest no single, easily described association between maltreatment and the activity of either system. Rather, they suggest a heterogeneous set of associations, ranging from hypo- to hyperactivity, which are partially attributable to the heterogeneity of methods represented in the studies included in the analysis.

The results of these meta-analyses also reveal the limitations of the literature as it currently stands. Prominent among these is an over-reliance on samples of participants from the United States. This is problematic given the international prevalence of child maltreatment, and is emblematic of the broader underrepresentation of international populations in published developmental research in general and within the Society in particular. Therefore, our third presentation will report the results of a study conducted with a sample of children from Sierra Leone by an international member of the Society that examined the association between maltreatment in early life and PNS activity in childhood and adolescence. The results of all three studies will be discussed by Sara Jaffee, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Chair

• Steven John Holochwost, City University of New York Lehman College

Discussant

• Sara R Jaffee, University of Pennsylvania

Individual Presentations

• The link between maltreatment history and respiratory sinus arrhythmia in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis - Presenting Author: Jacek Kolacz, Indiana University - Bloomington

• The effects of maltreatment in childhood and adolescence on HPA axis activity: A meta-analysis - Presenting Author: Lindsay Ann Gomes, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Wylie, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• The impact of childhood trauma on the development of intersubjectivity - Presenting Author: Martini Ardizzi, University of Parma