Multi-type childhood maltreatment exposure and substance use development from adolescence to early adulthood: A GxE...

Childhood maltreatment types can co-occur and are associated with increased substance use during adolescence and early adulthood. There is also a strong genetic basis for substance use which interacts with environmental factors (e.g., childhood maltreatment) to influence substance use phenotype.

This research aimed to identify childhood maltreatment sub-groups based on type and chronicity, and their association with substance use change from adolescence to early adulthood, while accounting for the influence of substance use polygenic risk (i.e., genetic risk based on the combined effects of multiple genes).

We used a sample of unrelated European-origin Americans with genetic and childhood maltreatment data (n = 2,664) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Latent profile analysis was used for sub-group identification and direct and interaction effects were tested for longitudinal trajectories of substance use utilizing generalized estimating equations.

Three sub-groups with co-occurring childhood maltreatment exposures were identified: a high sexual abuse sub-group, a high physical abuse sub-group, and a normative sub-group (with low maltreatment exposure). At high polygenic risk, the high physical abuse sub-group had faster increases in substance use over time. In comparison, the high sexual abuse sub-group had faster progression in substance use only at low and medium polygenic risk.

Findings provide initial evidence for biological and environmental differences among maltreatment sub-groups on trajectories of substance use.