A new study in the European Journal of Neuroscience has highlighted the impact of childhood abuse on brain structure, which has significant implications for young adults who experience romantic relationship breakups, researchers have found. They found that smaller hippocampal volumes were associated with a combination of childhood abuse and the stress of romantic breakups. The study was published in the Journal of Applied Neuroscience.
It has long been known that childhood abuse increases the likelihood of developing mental health disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder in adulthood; previous studies have correlated this with smaller hippocampal chromosomes (feminine depression) that occurred within the first 12 to 14 months of life, but this discrepancy remains, especially in younger age groups.
Two lines of research inspired me: Behavioral research suggests that individuals who are abused develop strategies to survive abusive childhoods, but these strategies do not prepare them for adulthood, according to Henriette Acosta’s study.
According to the authors, individuals who have been abused typically face difficulties meeting developmental milestones in adolescence and early adulthood, such as handling romantic relationships and breakups. In addition, childhood abuse is a risk factor for the emergence of psychopathology.
According to neuroscience, individuals who were abused experience a reduction in hippocampal volume in their adult lives, while this is not true for children.
The researchers selected 196 healthy young adults, with an average age of 24 years, and half of them were women. None of the participants had a history of major psychiatric disorders and were assessed to determine their risk of childhood abuse and romantic relationship breakups. The Childhood Trauma Screener was used to assess childhood abuse and romantic relationship breakups, while romantic breakups were assessed through a questionnaire asking about their history of ending committed relationships.
After interviewing the participants, Stets took MRI scans to measure the volume of their hippocampus – a critical component of the hippocampus involved in the process of emotional control and memory regulation – and examined how childhood abuse and romantic breakups affected hippocampal volume.
Childhood abuse alone did not have a significant effect on young adults’ hippocampal volume, but results indicated that the combination of childhood abuse and romantic breakups reduced volume in both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Those with a history of abuse and romantic breakups had smaller hippocampal volumes than those who had not experienced either breakup.
The results demonstrated a possible relationship between dose and effects, with increased childhood trauma being associated with smaller hippocampal volumes in individuals with breakups, while being less related to larger hippocampal volumes in those without breakups.
Effects in the left hippocampus were slightly more pronounced than in the right, and were more likely to be associated with neglect (worse than the alternative) than abuse in general (worse than average).
Acosta told PsyPost that the brain imaging results match behavioral research findings that abused individuals experience more trouble when dealing with developmental tasks.
Our findings support the notion that childhood abuse increases the ability to cope with stress, which may make individuals more prone to psychiatric disorders. Additionally, we found that having a stable romantic relationship in later years may help individuals recover from childhood abuse and past relationship breakups.
The study, like all research, has some limitations. For example, the study used retrospective self-reports of childhood abuse and romantic relationships, which may be affected by memory problems or underreporting. More detailed and longitudinal assessments may provide a more comprehensive account of how these experiences interact over an extended period of time.
Acosta said the study was cross-sectional and did not take into account any causal relationships. He also said the impact of childhood trauma and relationship breakup experiences was assessed retrospectively.
The research by H. Acosta, A. Jensen and T. Kircher is titled “Linking romantic relationship experiences to childhood adversity and childhood adversity in children and adolescents shows a variable relationship between these two sources.”