Trauma and Emotional Processing: Does Subtype of Child Maltreatment Matter?

The present research looks at the processing of emotional faces in a sample of adults with childhood trauma to assess how the type of maltreatment reported (emotional, sexual, or physical), as well as the action of maltreatment (abuse or neglect), affects event-related potential (ERP) N170 peaks. More broadly, the paper assesses the relationship between scores on the 28-item Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-28) and reactivity during an emotional face-processing task. The present study emphasizes two research questions: (1) Does childhood trauma disproportionately impact the emotional processing of angry faces? (2) Does the subtype of childhood trauma have a significant effect on the value of N170 peaks in emotional processing tasks? These questions are answered through three hypotheses, analyzed using regression and ANOVA analysis. H1: Higher rates of childhood maltreatment (represented by higher CTQ-28 scores) will have a greater effect on the slope of N170 peaks for the angry face condition than for the neutral face condition. H2: A history of neglectful maltreatment will correlate with stronger ERP N170 frequencies during the face-viewing task than a history of physical and sexual abuse. H3: Emotional types of maltreatment (emotional abuse and neglect) will correlate with stronger ERP N170 frequencies during the face-viewing task. Statistical support is found for all three hypotheses, and implications are discussed.