Abstract
Early life adversity (ELA) is associated with diminished social cognition in populations with a neuropsychiatric diagnosis however less is known about general populations. Examining the association between ELA and social cognition in non-clinical populations allows determinants of social cognition to be explored in the absence of psychiatric classifications. The aim of this study was to examine the association between ELA and social cognition in the general adult population. The protocol for this study was preregistered on Prospero (preregistration-ID: CRD42023433358). Four databases and reverse citation searches were performed to identify relevant articles examining the relationship between social cognitive domains and ELA. Fisher's r-to-z transformed correlation coefficients were synthesised using inverse variance weighted random effects modelling to provide a mean effect size estimate, with 95% confidence intervals. The limited number of included studies precluded subgroup, sensitivity and publication bias analysis. 1,314 articles were identified with 20 articles representing 18 study populations meeting the inclusion criteria. There is preliminary evidence that ELA is associated with diminished theory of mind (z (r) = -.247, p = .002) and emotion recognition (z (r) = -.121, p < .001) in the general adult population. Sexual abuse as a subdomain of ELA is also associated with diminished emotion recognition (z (r) = -.056, p < .001). Correlational findings on the association between retrospective accounts of ELA and social cognitive deficits during adulthood suggest a continuing impact of trauma in later life. Longitudinal research is best situated to further explore causative and mediating factors underlying this relationship. These results have helped to clarify the ELA-social cognition association without potential confounds of concurrent mental health status, and, further elucidate a possible risk mechanism for functional disability. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-025-00724-y.