Childhood hardships affect emotions later in life

Bad experiences in childhood can have long-lasting effects, making people more sensitive to their daily ups and downs as adults.

A new study from Heriot-Watt University shows that adverse childhood experiences not only cause people to respond more negatively to bad events. 

It also affects how they respond to good events in daily life. 

The research is published in Emotion, a journal published by the American Psychological Association. 

Negative reactions to lows and highs 

Dr Sophie Potter from Heriot-Watt University’s School of Social Sciences, with colleagues from the University of Leicester and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, investigated how childhood adversity affects people’s reactions to everyday experiences, good and bad. 

They studied nearly 2000 adults aged 35 to 86. For eight days, participants wrote about their experiences and emotions. 

Dr Potter said: “Most research has focused on how people with difficult childhoods react more strongly to bad events, like stress or problems. 

“But there’s not much on how childhood adversity affects people’s ability to feel joy or happiness at positive events, like having a laugh with friends or receiving positive feedback at work.” 

“People who faced physical and emotional abuse as children had stronger emotional reactions to daily problems. 

“Not only do they have a more negative reaction to bad events, but they are also less likely to feel happy about good things. 

“In fact, good events appear to trigger negative reactions.” 

A ‘subtle effect’ on daily life 

Potter points out that around 30% of adults in Western countries have experienced adversity in their childhoods, but our knowledge of its impact focuses on a small group of people. 

“A lot of research has been conducted with people who have gone on to experience clinical levels of depression or anxiety, for example, instead of the general population. 

“There will be thousands of people in the UK and across other western nations who aren’t suffering from a major clinical disorder, but childhood adversity may still be having a subtle effect on their daily life. 

“Understanding that childhood adversity could be affecting how you experience good and bad events could help people self-regulate and adapt.” 

The research used the MIDUS dataset, and Potter says she would like to expand the research with a bigger group of people. 

“It would be interesting to use data from more diverse groups, whether it’s race and ethnicity or age. I’d be very interested to find out if there’s an age at which childhood adversity loses its effects on people’s behaviour, if there’s a resilience or self-knowledge that kicks in.” 

ENDS

Media contact: Sarah McDaid (sarah@mcdaidpr.co.uk/ 07866789688) 

Notes to editors 

The team 

Dr Sophie Potter worked with Dr Emma Bridger and Dr Patrycja Piotrowska from the Universtiy of Leicester and Dr Johanna Drewelies from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.