Early childhood trauma and its long-term impact on cognitive and emotional development: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Childhood trauma has profound, long-term effects on cognitive and emotional development. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to synthesis the evidence around the long-term impact of human childhood trauma on domains of cognition and emotion in order to inform interventions and public health strategies. We systematically reviewed 465 studies from PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar, 9 studies were included after duplicates were removed and inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, and all 9 studies were aimed at low-income people in the United States. Data on study design, trauma types, and cognitive/emotional outcomes were extracted. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool (RoB 2). Random-effects meta-analysis and subgroup analyses (processing speed, attention, working memory, emotion regulation, executive function) were conducted using R software. Childhood trauma was associated with significant deficits in: Attention (SMD = 2.37, 95% CI: [5.75, 10.50]) Working memory (SMD = 3.55, 95% CI: [2.18, 9.28]) Emotion regulation (SMD = 1.25, 95% CI: [1.12, 3.62]) Executive function (SMD = 1.61, 95% CI: [0.06, 3.28]) Processing speed showed smaller deficits (SMD = −0.48, 95% CI: [−1.91, 0.94]). High heterogeneity (I²: 77–98%) reflected variability in trauma types and assessments. The pooled effect size (SMD = 1.57, 95% CI: [−0.12, 3.26]) highlighted trauma’s pervasive impact. Childhood trauma disproportionately impairs attention and working memory. These findings, however, point to the importance of early screening, trauma-informed care and targeted interventions to ameliorate the long-term consequences of trauma, even with high heterogeneity. Methodological variability should be addressed to inform prevention and treatment strategies in future research, as well as resilience factors explored.