Social functioning mediated the relationship between childhood emotional neglect and cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND

Childhood maltreatment is frequently reported to be associated with cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia, but research on the childhood neglect subtype in childhood maltreatment is limited.

OBJECTIVE

This study sets out from the impact of childhood neglect on cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, and explores the interrelationship of childhood neglect, social functioning, resilience, and cognitive functioning.

PARTICIPANTS AND

SETTING

Two-hundred and thirty-two patients who met the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia were recruited at the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.

METHOD: The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) were used to assess childhood emotional and physical neglect, social functioning, resilience, and cognitive functioning respectively.

RESULT: The results indicate that (1) both emotional neglect (Spearman's r = -0.167, p = 0.015) and physical neglect (Spearman's r = -0.263, p < 0.001) are associated with cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia; (2) social functioning partially mediated the cognitive impairment in schizophrenia that related to emotional neglect (βtotal = -0.15, SE = 0.07, 95 % CI: LL = -0.31 ~ UL = -0.03); (3) resilience is associated with emotional neglect (Spearman's r = -0.244, p = 0.002) and appears to be independent of cognitive impairment (Spearman's r = -0.006, p = 0.942).

CONCLUSION

Social functioning is a significant mediating factor between childhood emotional neglect and cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia. This suggests that interventions aimed at improving social functioning may help ameliorate cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia who have high levels of emotional neglect scores.