Childhood Maltreatment and Working Memory: Considering the Influence of Anxiety and Emotion Dysregulation

This study investigated female college students with and without a history of childhood maltreatment and working memory ability on a traditional and an emotional working memory task. Individual difference variables of current anxiety and emotion dysregulation were also assessed. Some research reports a working memory deficit among individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment. However, some research has not found a relationship between maltreatment history and working memory. Both anxiety and emotion dysregulation are known to be associated with childhood maltreatment. Also, anxiety and emotion dysregulation are associated with poor working memory performance. Previous research has not considered the influence of anxiety or emotion dysregulation on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and working memory performance. This research did not find a relationship between childhood maltreatment and working memory performance on a traditional or emotional task. Also, anxiety and emotion dysregulation were not found to interact with the relationship between childhood maltreatment and working memory performance. Exploratory analyses did reveal an interaction of childhood maltreatment and a specific trial type within the traditional working memory task. The exploratory results from this study imply value in considering the cognitive components required to execute working memory tasks in future childhood maltreatment research.