The Effects Of Childhood Trauma On Individual Emotional Reactivity And Attentional Bias

Childhood trauma is defined as any action or omission by parents or other caregivers that cause harm,potential harm,or threat of harm.Childhood trauma alters the underlying neurobiological structures and connections associated with emotions.One focus of childhood trauma research is the emotional processes of traumatized individuals.There are some changes in emotional response and emotional regulation in individuals with childhood trauma.Childhood trauma affects individuals’ emotional reactivity.One possible mechanism is the attachment related process,that is,childhood trauma increases the risk of insecure attachment.Internal working patterns of self and others associated with insecure attachment may affect the processing of emotionally related information in individuals.But the theoretical mechanism lacks empirical research.Emotional sensitivity is an important index to measure emotional reactivity,which reflects the characteristics of individual cognitive processing of emotional information.Attentional bias reflects the individual’s selective bias towards environmental information processing and the emotional regulation strategies.Previous studies on emotional sensitivity were relatively few,mainly scattered in studies on anxiety sensitivity and rejection sensitivity.The research objects were mainly focused on children and patients with mental disorders,and there was a lack of studies on normal adults.Studies focused on the relationship between attentional bias for emotional cues and childhood trauma have produced conflicting results.Therefore,this study believes that the attention bias orientation of individuals with childhood trauma needs to be further studied.Based on the summary of previous research,this study uses questionnaire and experimental methods to explore the impact of childhood trauma on individual emotional information processing ability.There are three studies,respectively from attachment mediation,emotional sensitivity and attention bias,to explore the impact of childhood trauma.In the first study,questionnaire was used to explore the specific mechanism between childhood trauma and emotional reactivity,and to examine the mediating role of attachment.A total of 426 college students were selected as research objects.Childhood trauma,attachment and emotional reactivity were measured by questionnaires.A structural equation model was built according to variables to explore the role of attachment in childhood trauma and individual emotional reactivity.In the second study,dynamic emotional face pictures of adults and infants were selected as experimental materials to explore the characteristics of emotional sensitivity of individuals with childhood trauma.A mixed experimental design of 2(group of subjects: group with childhood trauma,group without childhood trauma)×2(emotional face: Positive faces,negative faces)was adopted.The differences in emotional sensitivity of individuals with and without childhood trauma,and the differences in responses to emotional faces of adults and infants were analyzed.In the third study,the characteristics and specific components of attention bias in individuals with childhood trauma were investigated by Dot-probe Paradigm.A mixed experimental design of 2(group of subjects: group with childhood trauma,group without childhood trauma)×2(emotional face pairs: neutral-positive face pairs,neutral-negative face pairs)×2(detection point location: consistent,inconsistent)was used to explore and reveal the characteristics and components of attention bias in individuals with childhood trauma.The final results are as follows:(1)Childhood trauma positively predicts emotional reactivity.Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and emotional reactivity.(2)Childhood trauma affects the sensitivity of individuals to different emotions of adults and infants.But the difference between groups is not significant.Individuals have significant differences in emotional face responses between adults and infants,as well as positive and negative emotional responses,which are more sensitive to adult positive emotions and more sensitive to infant negative emotions.(3)Childhood trauma affects the attention bias of individuals to different emotional faces of adults and infants.There is an attention bias for negative faces of adults,and there is an attention bias for both positive and negative faces of infants.There is no significant difference between the components of attention bias.Traumatic experiences in childhood may have a negative psychological and emotional impact on individuals,leading to insecure attachment,emotional disorders,mental health and other problems.This study focused on the effects of childhood trauma on individuals’ ability to process emotional information and revealed the mediating role of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance in the relationship between childhood trauma and emotional reactivity.Emotional sensitivity and attentional bias were investigated to explore the characteristics of emotional response and emotional regulation in individuals with childhood trauma.This study provides the scientific basis for clinical interventions and help people affected by childhood trauma rebuild healthy emotional relationships.