The Effect of Childhood Maltreatment on Affect Labeling in Youth: An ERP Study.

Background: Previous studies on emotional processing in individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment have primarily examined either implicit or explicit processing modes in isolation, with limited research integrating both approaches. Empirical evidence regarding the use of affect labeling to regulate emotions among young adults with childhood maltreatment remains lacking. The affect labeling paradigm used in this study incorporates both implicit and explicit processing mechanisms, thereby offering a comprehensive means to investigate how childhood maltreatment specifically influences emotional processing.

Method: This study employed event-related potential (ERP) techniques to examine the influence of maltreatment on the affect labeling effect, using both affect labeling and gender labeling tasks. Participants were classified into maltreated (n = 17) and non-maltreated (n = 19) groups based on their scores on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF).

Results: (1) At Cz and CPz, the LPP amplitudes induced by affect labeling were significantly smaller than those induced by gender labeling. (2) At Fz, FCz, Cz, CPz, and Pz, maltreated individuals exhibited significantly lower LPP amplitudes compared to non-maltreated individuals. (3) With respect to emotional categories, the LPP amplitudes in response to happy faces were smaller than those to angry faces.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that implicit emotion regulation is beneficial for young adults with a history of childhood maltreatment in terms of emotion management. Maltreated individuals demonstrated decreased emotional arousal across both implicit and explicit emotional tasks, confirming the influence of maltreatment on the affect labeling effect. This supports the disruption theory. The present study expands the application of the affect labeling effect and provides new electrophysiological evidence for research on cognitive changes in individuals with childhood maltreatment.