Investigating Associations Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Fear Learning Processes in Female Survivors of Childhood Abuse

Survivors of childhood abuse are at greater risk for a wide range of health disorders in adulthood, which is posited to occur in part through alterations to threat-related processes such as fear learning. Neighborhood characteristics such as area disadvantage and exposure to neighborhood crime are associated with threat processing in trauma-exposed individuals; however, their relationship with fear learning has not been studied to date. This study assessed relationships between three measures of neighborhood safety (neighborhood disadvantage, crime exposure, and self-reported neighborhood safety in childhood) with three established markers of fear learning (fear/safety discrimination, startle habituation, and fear extinction). A sample of N = 92 individuals assigned female at birth with varying levels of exposure to childhood abuse completed an established fear-potentiated startle task and reported their lifetime trauma history, as well as a brief measure of perceived neighborhood safety. The Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ) was used to identify the year and zip code of residence of their earliest abuse exposure; this was then used to identify census-derived indices for neighborhood disadvantage and neighborhood crime. Results showed that higher levels of neighborhood disadvantage were significantly associated with poorer fear/safety discrimination in adulthood (ß = -0.39, p = 0.03), and that this relationship remained significant after adjusting for the severity of childhood abuse (ß = -0.28, p = 0.01). Additionally, greater neighborhood disadvantage was associated with slightly blunted initial startle values during habituation (ß = -0.01, p = 0.03). No significant relationships were found between other neighborhood variables and markers of fear learning. These findings demonstrate the need for greater research into how neighborhood characteristics may influence recovery from traumatic experiences, particularly in terms of their influence on fear learning and memory processes.