A study involving several thousand teens in Quebec, Canada, found that individuals who experienced maltreatment as children were at a heightened risk of experiencing dating violence as teens. The study authors propose that survivors of childhood maltreatment are less able to identify and express their emotional experiences (a condition known as alexithymia), putting them at increased risk of dating violence. The study was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
Childhood maltreatment refers to the abuse and neglect that children may experience at the hands of their caregivers or others. It can take the form of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or neglect. Childhood maltreatment can lead to long-term psychological, emotional, and physical consequences, affecting a child’s development and well-being.
It is a significant public health issue. Estimates state that around 20% of women and 8% of men in North America have been victims of sexual abuse as children. Additionally, 24% are estimated to have experienced physical abuse, while 37% endured emotional abuse.
Study author Valérie Théorêt and her colleagues wanted to explore the emotional process that links maltreatment in childhood with experiencing dating violence as a teen. They note that developing the capacity to maintain a healthy romantic relationship is one of the key developmental tasks during adolescence. To be successful in this task, an individual must learn to navigate various challenges related to intimacy, sexuality, and conflict resolution.
Problems in navigating these challenges can lead to various adverse outcomes, including teen dating violence. Teen dating violence includes acts of psychological, physical, and sexual violence perpetrated by a current or former intimate partner. Previous studies indicated that survivors of childhood maltreatment had an increased risk of experiencing teen dating violence, and the authors of this study believed that alexithymia, the inability to identify and express one’s own emotions, might be the key to explaining this link.
Théorêt and her colleagues analyzed data from the Youths’ Romantic Relationships Survey, a study of adolescents in grades 9 to 11 from 34 high schools in Quebec, Canada. In this study, students completed a survey twice – in the fall of 2011 and in the spring of 2012. In total, 8,194 adolescents completed the first survey and 5,932 completed the second survey. Of those who completed both surveys, 2,780 reported being in a romantic relationship in the six months preceding the second survey, and their data was used in this analysis.
In the first survey, participating students completed assessments of childhood maltreatment, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, exposure to psychological and physical violence between parents or caregivers, and alexithymia (using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale). In the second survey, participants completed an assessment of teen dating violence (physical violence, psychological violence, and threatening behaviors were assessed using a shortened version of the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory) and an assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms related to teen dating violence (using the Children’s Impact of Traumatic Events Scale II).
Results indicated that survivors of childhood maltreatment tended to report higher levels of alexithymia and all forms of teen dating violence. They also tended to have higher levels of teen dating violence-related PTSD symptoms.
The study authors tested two statistical models proposing that childhood maltreatment leads to more pronounced alexithymia. Alexithymia, in turn, leads to an increased risk of teen dating violence and more severe symptoms of PTSD related to teen dating violence. Results showed that this relationship between factors is possible.
“Promoting emotional awareness and identification among youth victims of child maltreatment could reduce the risk TDV [teen dating violence] occurrence, TDV chronicity, and TDV-related PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder) symptoms,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on a possible role of alexithymia in the link between childhood maltreatment and dating violence. However, childhood maltreatment data in the study was based on participants’ ability to recall and willingness to self-report these events, while all the other data was also based on self-reports. This leaves quite a bit of room for reporting bias to affect the results. Additionally, the design of the study does not allow any definitive cause-and-effect inferences to be made from the results.
The paper, “Investigating the Role of Alexithymia in the Association between Cumulative Childhood Maltreatment and Teen Dating Violence Victimization,” was authored by Valérie Théorêt, Élizabeth Hébert, and Martine Hébert.