Intersectional inequalities in childhood maltreatment and adolescent emotional problems in England: a...

Childhood maltreatment and adolescent mental health problems are unequally distributed, with the highest burdens among marginalised groups including females and those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. However, little is known about how the psychological consequences of maltreatment vary across intersecting social positions (e.g., socioeconomically disadvantaged females). Prior quantitative work has largely focused on average differences across a limited number of groups, obscuring non-additive intersectional patterning. Because social realities are structured by overlapping systems of privilege and oppression (e.g., relating to gender, socioeconomic position, ethnicity, age, and place), we leveraged recent methodological advances to address this gap. Accordingly, this study aimed to (i) map inequalities in adolescent emotional problems and the effects of maltreatment across intersectional positions; and (ii) describe the extent to which inequalities in emotional problems reflect additive and non-additive (intersectional) effects.

Data were analysed from 19 590 students aged 11-16 years who participated in the OxWell 2023 Student Survey in England, United Kingdom. Within a random-coefficient Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA), individuals were nested in 180 intersectional strata defined by combinations of social positions relating to gender, ethnicity, household poverty, school year group, and school-level deprivation (also entered as additive main effects). Emotional problems (Revised Child Depression and Anxiety Scale; RCADS-11) were regressed on maltreatment exposure (Short Childhood Maltreatment Questionnaire) as the primary effect of interest. Stratum-specific predicted emotional problems and maltreatment effects were estimated, and between-stratum variance was partitioned into additive and residual non-additive components.

Maltreatment was associated with higher levels of emotional problems, with stratum-specific increases ranging from +3.20 to +6.14 scale points. Socioeconomically disadvantaged females and individuals who selected 'other' or 'prefer not to say' for gender showed the highest levels of emotional problems and among the strongest maltreatment effects. Between-stratum inequalities in emotional problems were largely accounted for by maltreatment exposure and the additive contributions of the included social positions. However, residual non-additive effects were also evident, particularly among individuals exposed to maltreatment, where 5.25% of between-stratum variance remained unaccounted for by additive effects (compared with 3.46% among those not exposed).

In this large community sample of adolescents in England, the detrimental effects of maltreatment on emotional problems appear pervasive but not uniform across intersectional social positions. Applying an intersectional MAIHDA framework suggests that inequalities in adolescent emotional problems largely reflect additive social patterning, with additional non-additive contributions suggestive of intersectional dynamics that are more pronounced with maltreatment exposure. These findings motivate deeper investigation into the social-structural mechanisms that shape vulnerability and resilience in adolescence, and support the need for trauma-informed, equity-focused interventions and policy action to reduce unequal exposure to maltreatment and the contexts that amplify its harms.