Link – Child Abuse Can Increase Risk of Adolescent Misbehavior

I’ve been saying something similar for a long time. Children who are being abused do not develop the skills they need to deal with later life. In this study, we see the repercussions of that lack of development in misbehaving adolescents. Later, maybe we see the same in adults with poor social skills, or illogical fears, etc.

“Researchers have discovered that an important learning process is impaired in adolescents who were abused as children. Experts believe this impairment contributes to misbehavior patterns later in life.

 

The theory holds that associative learning, or the process by which an individual subconsciously links experiences and stimuli together, partially explains how people generally react to various real-world situations.

 

In the new study, University of Pittsburgh Assistant Professor Jamie L. Hanson, detailed the connection between impaired associative learning capacities and instances of early childhood abuse.

 

“We primarily found that a poorer sense of associative learning negatively influences a child’s behavior patterns during complex and fast-changing situations.””

https://psychcentral.com/news/2017/03/01/child-abuse-increases-risk-of-adolescent-misbehavior