Exploring Potential Pathways Linking Childhood Maltreatment and Body Dysmorphic Disorder in Adolescents: A...

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Childhood maltreatment is linked to body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).
• Psychological mechanisms connecting maltreatment and BDD in adolescents are not well understood.
• Adolescence is a critical period for understanding these associations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cognitive, emotional, and behavioral mechanisms linking childhood maltreatment and BDD in adolescents.
• To compare these mechanisms across adolescents with BDD, psychiatric controls, and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study design.
• Inclusion of three groups: adolescents with BDD (n=61), psychiatric controls (n=68), and healthy controls (n=70).
• Utilized clinical interviews, self-report questionnaires, and behavioral tasks to assess maltreatment, social-cognition, emotion regulation, and cognitive-behavioral control.

Main Results:

• Adolescents with BDD reported higher emotional abuse/neglect, fear of negative evaluation, and threat-related interpretive biases compared to controls.
• BDD group exhibited elevated maladaptive schemas, emotion regulation difficulties, heightened attention to appearance-related stimuli, and reduced cognitive control/behavioral inhibition.
• Emotional abuse and neglect were particularly associated with these BDD-related vulnerabilities.

Conclusions:

• Childhood maltreatment, specifically emotional abuse and neglect, may contribute to cognitive-affective and neurobehavioral vulnerabilities in adolescent BDD.
• Findings identify potential targets for early identification and intervention in adolescents with BDD.
• Understanding these mechanisms is crucial during the sensitive adolescent developmental stage.