Does Childhood Trauma Shapes How We Keep Our Distance?

Tuesday, October 22, 2024.

A fascinating new study published in Translational Psychiatry explores how childhood maltreatment affects how close or distant people prefer to be in social settings.

Conducted by an international team of researchers, the study revealed that folks who experienced maltreatment as children tend to keep more physical space between themselves and others, including both friends and strangers.

It’s the first time research of this kind has shown that early trauma impacts personal space preferences across such a wide range of cultures. Let’s break down what this means and why it might be important.

Childhood Maltreatment: A Global Issue with Lasting Effects

Childhood maltreatment is a distressingly common experience that affects millions worldwide, including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect.

The long-term consequences are well-documented, with survivors often facing challenges in forming close relationships, and being at higher risk for anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles. But how does this early adversity impact one’s comfort with physical proximity to others?

Past research has highlighted that people who endured childhood abuse can be hyper-aware of negative social cues and might even misinterpret neutral expressions as threatening.

This can lead to discomfort in physically close interactions.

However, studies have mostly focused on European populations and interactions with strangers, leaving unanswered questions about how early trauma affects relationships with close friends and across different cultures.

The Study: A Diverse Approach to Understanding Social Distance

To fill these gaps, a research team led by Monique C. Pfaltz from Mid Sweden University conducted a study with nearly 3,000 participants from 43 countries.

These participants, representing a range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, completed a series of online tasks designed to measure their preferences for personal space.

Participants viewed a virtual room on their screens and watched as a figure—representing either a friend or a stranger—approached them. When the figure reached a point that felt uncomfortably close, the participants pressed a button, signaling their preferred distance.

In addition to this virtual task, participants completed surveys about their childhood experiences of maltreatment, levels of social support, attachment styles, and symptoms of anxiety or depression.

The goal? To see if there was a connection between their childhood experiences and how much space they preferred to keep from others.

Bigger Distances, Deeper Impact

The results?

Participants who reported higher levels of childhood maltreatment preferred keeping a larger distance from both strangers and friends.

This suggests that childhood trauma leaves a lasting imprint on how people navigate social interactions, making them more cautious even with those they’re close to.

Notably, this pattern was consistent across all the countries studied, indicating that the impact of early trauma on personal space isn’t just a Western phenomenon—it’s a global one.

“It is known that child maltreatment is linked to broad impairments in social well-being. However, our knowledge on the specific factors that underlie these impairments is limited,” said Pfaltz. “Here, we were interested in alterations in non-verbal, socially relevant behavior (what distance do we preferably take towards other persons) as we think that these might contribute to problems in social interactions and social well-being.”

The Role of Attachment and Social Support

Beyond the direct link between maltreatment and distance, the study found that people with insecure attachment styles—those who feel anxious or avoidant in relationships—also preferred larger interpersonal distances.

Similarly, those who reported lower levels of social support from family and friends tended to want more physical space. This aligns with previous findings suggesting that those who feel less secure in their relationships often find it difficult to maintain closeness, both emotionally and physically.

But there was an interesting twist: people with higher levels of social anxiety preferred smaller distances, contrary to what the researchers initially expected.

It seems that some folks with social anxiety might find comfort in being physically closer, possibly because proximity allows them to better observe and manage social interactions.

Not All Abuse Has the Same Effect

The study also broke down the types of childhood maltreatment—emotional abuse, physical abuse, and neglect—to see if they affected personal space preferences differently.

It turns out that physical abuse and neglect had the strongest influence, making survivors more likely to keep their distance from others.

Curiously, emotional abuse showed a weaker, non-significant effect. This finding suggests that the nature of the trauma can shape how survivors relate to their social environment in different ways.

A Virtual Reality of Human Interaction?

While the study offers valuable insights, it’s important to note its limitations.

The research was conducted online, with participants interacting with virtual figures rather than real people.

This setup, while useful for standardizing measurements, doesn’t fully capture the nuances of face-to-face interactions, such as body language and emotional expressions. Real-life social interactions are more complex, and additional research could help confirm these findings in more natural settings.

Why It Matters Anyway

This research highlights a subtle but crucial way that childhood maltreatment affects people throughout their lives—by shaping how they manage social distance.

It also emphasizes the importance of considering these preferences when helping trauma survivors rebuild their social lives.

For those who have been through early adversity, maintaining a comfortable distance might be a way to protect themselves from potential hurt, reflecting a deeply ingrained instinct to avoid danger.

Understanding this preference for personal space can be a step toward greater empathy for those who might seem distant or reserved.

It’s not just about social preferences; it’s about how past experiences shape our sense of safety with others. And as society becomes more aware of these dynamics, it can foster environments where everyone feels a little safer, whether they need closeness or a bit more room to breathe. That would be a blessing to many.

Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.

REFERENCES:

Haim-Nachum, S., Sopp, M. R., Lüönd, A. M., Afzal, N., Åhs, F., Allgaier, A.-K., Arévalo, A., Asongwe, C., Bachem, R., Balle, S. R., Belete, H., Mossie, T. B., Berzengi, A., Capraz, N., Ceylan, D., Dukes, D., Essadek, A., Fares-Otero, N. E., Halligan, S. L., Hemi, A., Iqbal, N., Jobson, L., Levy-Gigi, E., Martin-Soelch, C., Michael, T., Oe, M., Olff, M., Örnkloo, H., Prakash, K., Quaatz, S. M., Raghavan, V., Ramakrishnan, M., Reis, D., Şar, V., Schnyder, U., Seedat, S., Shihab, I. N., Vandhana, S., Wadji, D. L., Wamser, R., Zabag, R., Spies, G., & Pfaltz, M. C. (2024). Childhood maltreatment is linked to larger preferred interpersonal distances towards friends and strangers across the globe. Translational Psychiatry.