Negative Emotionality Causes Childhood Adversity to Continue into Adulthood

Grace M. Brennan, PhD

Credit: Duke

A study shows adversity in childhood leads to more stressful life events in adulthood, caused by negative emotionality or mistrust of others.¹

“Interestingly, participants who had more early experiences of deprivation…but not threat…grew into adults who had more stressful life experiences,” wrote investigators, led by Grace M. Brennan, PhD, from Duke Aging Center.

Childhood adversities include abuse, neglect, or family economic hardship.² Toxic stress from frequent adversity without adult support can result in permanent brain development changes, and subsequently, psychological damage. Brennan’s team hypothesized children aged 3 –1 5 years who experienced adversity would face further adversity in adulthood (32 – 45 years), with young adult (ages 18 – 26 years) personality traits explaining this link.¹

The study included 920 participants from the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, born between April 1972 and March 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand. Assessments were carried out at ages 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26, 32, 38, and 45 years, with the mostly White (93%) sample.

Investigators collected adverse childhood experiences via social service contacts, teachers’ notes of concern, parental questionnaires, and structured notes. Adversities included abuse (physical, emotional, sexual), neglect, loss of a parent, household substance use, and partner violence.

At ages 18 and 26, self-reported personality traits were assessed using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, which measured negative emotionality (alienation, aggression, stress reaction), positive emotionality, and constraint. A greater negative emotionality score reflected a low threshold for fear, anxiety, or anger.

Moreover, positive emotionality consisted of well-being, social potency, social closeness, and achievement scales; a higher score indicated a low threshold for experiencing positive emotions and tended to view life as a pleasurable experience. Constraint consisted of control, harm avoidance, and traditionalism scales, and individuals who scored high tended to act in a cautious manner, avoid thrills, and conform to social norms.

Informant-reported personality traits were assessed at age 26 years using a brief version of the Big Five Inventory, evaluating for agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience. These questionnaires were completed by people who knew the study participants well, such as best friends, partners, or other family members.

The number of stressful life events experienced by participants aged 32 – 44 years was assessed using a life history calendar. Events included a breakup, frequent moving (≥ 10 times), homelessness, incarceration, the death of a friend or family member, job loss, medical illness of themselves or a friend or family member, physical or sexual assault, serious financial problems, and a natural or human-made disaster.

Furthermore, the team assessed temperament variables such as approach or the tendency to explore in new situations, sluggishness (i.e. passivity or withdrawal), and the lack of control (i.e. impulsivity, distractibility, and irritability).

Like prior research, the study showed children who experienced more adversity tended to also experience more stressful life events as adults (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.04 – 0.18; P = .002). Negative emotionality, especially alienation (mistrust), contributed significantly (95% CI, 0.04 – 0.09; P < .001). Findings were robust when adjusted for sex, socioeconomic origins, childhood IQ, preschool temperament, and other young adult personality traits.

Young adults with more childhood adversities had significantly greater negative emotionality (95% CI, 0.15 – 0.28; P < .001) and lower constraint (95% CI, -0.18 to -0.5; P < .001). A greater negative emotionality (95% CI, 0.22 to 0.36; P < .001) and lower constraint (95% CI, -0.21 to -0.6; P < .001) were associated with more stressful events in adulthood.

Children and young adults with adversities had significantly greater levels of alienation (P < .001), aggression (P < .001), and stress reaction (P < .001), which in turn was linked to more stressful life events in adulthood.

“Interventions that aim to reduce negative emotionality and alienation in young adulthood could reduce vulnerability to experiencing further adversity, thereby disrupting the continuity of adversity across the life course and promoting health and well-being among aging adults,” investigators concluded.

References

1. ^{Brennan GM, Moffitt TE, Bourassa K, Harrington H, Hogan S, Houts RM, Poulton R, Ramrakha S, Caspi A. The Continuity of Adversity: Negative Emotionality Links Early Life Adversity With Adult Stressful Life Events. Clin Psychol Sci. 2024 Nov;12(6):1111-1126. doi: 10.1177/21677026231220337. Epub 2024 Jan 11. PMID: 39635457; PMCID: PMC11617008.}
2. ^{Early Childhood Adversity. US Department of Health and Human Services. November 4, 2020. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/child-health-development/early-adversity#:~:text=Examples%20of%20early%20adversity%20include,to%20a%20toxic%20stress%20response.. Accessed December 17, 2024.}