Childhood Adversity Is Not Related to Associative Memory for Emotional Stimuli

Binding content together in memory (i.e., associative memory) is often impaired by negative emotion, and adults exposed to childhood adversity tend to show heightened emotional reactivity that may influence memory for emotional content. We tested whether childhood adversity augments the impairing effect of emotion on associative memory. In an online study, young adult participants ( N = 700) self-reported exposure to childhood adversity. Participants were then presented with images stratified by emotion (negative, neutral) that were paired with an image of a benign object. Twenty-four hours later, participants’ associative memory for image pairs was tested. Although childhood adversity was prevalent and negatively associated with psychological well-being, it was not associated with poorer associative memory regardless of stimuli valence ( b = −0.01, p = .175). Findings suggest that childhood adversity is not always related to associative memory despite theories positing that poor associative memory may drive mental-health concerns associated with childhood adversity.