Experiences of severe childhood maltreatment, depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse among adults in Finland.

Wail Rehan,Jan Antfolk,Patrick Jern,Ada Johansson,Pekka Santtila,Valsamma Eapen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0177252

Wail Rehan, Jan Antfolk + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177252

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: May 8, 2017
Citations: 81	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Åbo Akademi University, University of Turku

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment increases the risk of subsequent depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse, but the rate of resilient victims is unknown. Here, we investigated the rate of victims that do not suffer from clinical levels of these problems after severe maltreatment in a population-based sample of 10980 adult participants. Compared to men, women reported more severe emotional and sexual abuse, as well as more severe emotional neglect. For both genders, severe emotional abuse (OR = 3.80 [2.22, 6.52]); severe physical abuse (OR = 3.97 [1.72, 9.16]); severe emotional neglect (OR = 3.36 [1.73, 6.54]); and severe physical neglect (OR = 11.90 [2.66, 53.22]) were associated with depression and anxiety while only severe physical abuse (OR = 3.40 [1.28, 9.03]) was associated with alcohol abuse. Looking at men and women separately, severe emotional abuse (OR = 6.05 [1.62, 22.60] in men; OR = 3.74 [2.06, 6.81] in women) and severe physical abuse (OR = 6.05 [1.62, 22.60] in men; OR = 3.03 [0.99, 9.33] in women) were associated with clinical levels of depression and anxiety. In addition, in women, severe sexual abuse (OR = 2.40 [1.10, 5.21]), emotional neglect (OR = 4.78 [2.40, 9.56]), and severe physical neglect (OR = 9.86 [1.99, 48.93]) were associated with clinical levels of depression and anxiety. Severe emotional abuse in men (OR = 3.86 [0.96, 15.48]) and severe physical abuse in women (OR = 5.18 [1.48, 18.12]) were associated with alcohol abuse. Concerning resilience, the majority of severely maltreated participants did not report clinically significant levels of depression or anxiety (72%), or alcohol abuse (93%) in adulthood. Although the majority of severely abused or neglected individuals did not show clinical levels of depression, anxiety or alcohol use, severe childhood maltreatment increased the risk for showing clinical levels of psychopathology in adulthood.

Highlights

Severe child maltreatment is conventionally defined within child protection practice as severe physical, emotional, sexual abuse and/or severe physical and emotional neglect by adults [1]
Severe childhood maltreatment subjected to multiple forms of maltreatment, if a weapon had been used, if the maltreatment resulted in an injury, and if the abuse was considered severe by the victim
Our current findings suggest that, more than half of the participants who have severe experiences of abuse and neglect in childhood seem to succeed in overcoming some of the possible consequences with regards to depression and anxiety symptoms and alcohol abuse in adulthood

Summary

Introduction

Severe child maltreatment is conventionally defined within child protection practice as severe physical, emotional, sexual abuse and/or severe physical and emotional neglect by adults [1]. Even a single experience is often considered to be severe [1]. Several studies show that childhood physical, emotional, and sexual abuse are all related to an increased risk of depression and anxiety disorders in adulthood [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Other studies have found that the severity of abuse and neglect is associated with increased depression and anxiety symptoms in adulthood [10,11,12]. Young-Wolff et al [17] found that men who had experienced childhood maltreatment were 1.7 times more likely to suffer from alcohol abuse in adulthood than men who did not report experiences of childhood maltreatment. Similar findings have been made when investigating the consequences of abuse and neglect in women (e.g., [18])

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