Childhood trauma is linked to lower cognitive flexibility in young adults

A recent study published in Psychological Reports suggests that experiencing abuse or neglect during childhood is linked to specific changes in cognitive skills during young adulthood. The findings indicate that while young adults with a history of maltreatment tend to struggle more with switching between mental tasks, their ability to hold and process temporary information remains intact. These results highlight how a harsh upbringing shapes brain development in complex ways, involving both vulnerabilities and psychological adaptations.

Scientists conducted this study to better understand how adverse early environments influence mental abilities as people transition into true adulthood. Emerging adulthood, which spans from ages 18 to 29, represents a unique developmental stage. During this phase, people take on new responsibilities, explore their identities, and experience significant brain maturation.

“Research has long linked childhood maltreatment to mental‑health problems, but findings on its impact on cognitive functioning have been inconsistent,” said study author Wai Man Wong, a PhD student in clinical psychology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

“Some studies report clear deficits, while others find little to no effect. This inconsistency highlighted a real gap: we lacked a solid, quantitative understanding of whether maltreatment reliably affects cognition, and which domains are most impacted. Our study addressed this by systematically synthesizing the evidence through meta‑analysis to clarify the strength and pattern of these associations.”

The researchers focused specifically on executive function, which refers to the higher-level mental skills that help us plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks. Past studies looking at the link between early maltreatment and executive function have yielded mixed and confusing results. The scientists wanted to clarify this relationship by testing two competing ideas in psychology.

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The first idea is the deficits model, which proposes that chronic stress from childhood trauma universally damages brain development and impairs mental skills. The second idea is the adaptation model. This perspective suggests that children who grow up in dangerous or unpredictable environments might actually fine-tune certain cognitive strengths to help them survive their specific circumstances.

To investigate these theories, the researchers performed a meta-analysis, which is a statistical technique that combines and analyzes the results of multiple independent scientific studies. They searched five major academic databases to find research that measured childhood maltreatment and specific cognitive skills in emerging adults. Their final analysis included 17 different studies, yielding 85 statistical comparisons and providing a combined sample of 19,357 participants.

The meta-analysis approach allows researchers to look at the big picture rather than relying on a single experiment. By pooling data from over 19,000 people, scientists can calculate an overall effect size, which measures the strength of a relationship between two variables. This statistical technique helps smooth out the quirks of individual studies to reveal true underlying patterns.

In these studies, childhood maltreatment included a range of adverse experiences that occurred before the age of eighteen. These experiences involved physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. The studies also measured forms of neglect, which happens when adults fail to meet a child’s basic physical or emotional needs.

The scientists looked at three specific components of executive function. The first component was cognitive flexibility, which is the ability to easily switch between different rules or ways of thinking. In everyday life, this might look like quickly coming up with a creative solution when a sudden problem arises at work.

The second component was inhibitory control, which refers to a person’s ability to override impulsive urges and regulate their attention or emotions. For example, inhibitory control is what stops someone from snapping at a rude customer. The third component was working memory, which acts as the mental workspace we use to temporarily hold and manipulate auditory and visual information.

The combined data revealed that young adults who experienced childhood maltreatment tended to perform worse on tests of cognitive flexibility than those without such histories. They also showed reductions in inhibitory control. The statistical analysis demonstrated a small but distinct drop in the ability to shift mental focus and suppress impulses among the maltreated group.

At the same time, working memory capacities between the two groups were completely comparable. The researchers found no significant deficit in working memory among those who had endured childhood abuse or neglect. Statistical models that accounted for the age of participants and whether the original studies were peer-reviewed consistently showed that working memory was preserved.

These findings support a balanced view of how trauma impacts the developing brain. The deficits in cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control align with the idea that early chronic stress can harm certain areas of brain development. When a child experiences continuous trauma, their body is constantly flooded with stress hormones.

Normally, the human body uses a fight or flight response to survive immediate danger. Once the threat passes, the brain signals the body to stop producing stress hormones and return to a calm state. However, chronic childhood maltreatment can break this natural feedback loop, leaving the developing brain exposed to overwhelming levels of stress chemicals.

Over time, this biological wear and tear can negatively alter the brain regions responsible for higher-level thinking and self-regulation. The physical toll of prolonged stress might explain the slight impairments in cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. At the same time, the adaptation model provides evidence for why working memory remains strong in spite of this stress.

From an evolutionary perspective, maintaining a strong working memory might be prioritized in high-stakes environments. Keeping track of multiple pieces of information helps individuals quickly detect threats and survive dangerous situations. The researchers describe this as a trade-off, where certain skills are sacrificed to preserve the mental tools needed most for survival.

It is important to remember that these findings represent averages across large groups of people. These results do not mean that every person who experienced childhood maltreatment will inevitably struggle with cognitive flexibility or impulse control. Many individuals show immense resilience and perform exceptionally well on all cognitive tasks despite early hardships.

The researchers hope these findings will encourage a shift in how society views survivors of childhood trauma. Focusing solely on cognitive deficits can unintentionally stigmatize people who experienced early hardships. Recognizing the preservation of working memory highlights the incredible adaptability of the human brain.

The scientists also noted several limitations in the available research. Most of the analyzed studies used a cross-sectional design, meaning they looked at data from a single point in time. This prevents researchers from proving a direct cause-and-effect relationship between childhood events and adult cognitive skills.

Additionally, the studies relied on participants to remember and report their own childhood experiences. Relying on human memory can sometimes result in inaccurate recollections or reporting biases. The available data also lacked consistent demographic details, which made it difficult to test how factors like gender might influence these cognitive outcomes.

Moving forward, the researchers suggest that future studies should examine different categories of maltreatment separately. Analyzing specific forms of trauma, like physical abuse versus emotional neglect, might reveal unique impacts on brain development. Scientists also hope to collect more detailed demographic data to better understand how various backgrounds shape the relationship between early adversity and later cognitive function.

“Our results showed that childhood maltreatment is linked to reduced cognitive flexibility and weaker inhibitory control in emerging adulthood, but working memory remained largely intact,” Wong told PsyPost. “In lay terms: on average, young adults with histories of maltreatment, may have a slightly more difficult time switching between different tasks and inhibiting impulses, than those without such histories.”

“On the other hand, there are no differences between groups in working memory, the skill of holding information in mind and actively thinking about. Of note, these findings do not apply to every person with maltreatment. It is important to keep in mind that these are group-level differences. Together, the findings show that maltreatment shapes cognition in complex ways, involving both vulnerability and adaptation.”

The study, “Childhood Maltreatment Impacts Cognitive Function in Emerging Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” was authored by Wai M. Wong, Bixi Zhang, Damaris Foley, and Valentina Nikulina.