Childhood maltreatment impacts emotion regulation difficulties, but not strategy use, throughout adolescence and young adulthood.

Abstract

Child maltreatment has been linked to numerous psychopathology outcomes throughout life, with emotion regulation proposed as a transdiagnostic mechanism. However, it remains relatively unknown how childhood abuse and neglect may differentially predict the development of emotion regulation during later years vulnerable to psychopathology. We examined the impact of early abuse and neglect experiences on the developmental trajectories of emotion regulation throughout adolescence and into young adulthood. The sample consisted of 167 adolescents who completed questionnaires assessing emotion regulation difficulties and emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) approximately annually across six time points, from ages 14 to 20 (2014-2021). Information on maltreatment experienced from ages 1 to 13 was collected at 18-19 years. Conditional growth curve models examining the effects of both abuse and neglect from ages 1 to 13 on the initial levels and growth rates of emotion regulation difficulties and strategies from ages 14 to 20. Abuse predicted developmental changes in emotion regulation difficulties, such that greater childhood abuse was associated with larger increases in emotion regulation difficulties from ages 14 to 20. Neglect predicted the initial levels of emotion regulation difficulties such that greater childhood neglect was associated with greater difficulties in emotion regulation at age 14. The findings suggest developmental consequences of childhood abuse and neglect evidenced by impaired development of emotion regulation abilities throughout adolescence and into young adulthood, whereas emotion regulation strategy is relatively unaffected by childhood abuse and neglect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).