Emotional Abuse Questionnaire (EAQ): A New Scale for Measuring Emotional Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment1

Emotional abuse is the core of all other kinds of child abuses and maltreatments. The significant and serious outcomes of other kinds of abuses are often due to the emotional aspects. Moreover, emotional abuse has several forms, and each form may lead to different adverse outcomes for children and adolescents. Unfortunately, there is not a comprehensive instrument to assess all categories of emotional abuse. A 30-item self-report questionnaire was developed for ages 12 years and older. The sample included 328 students aged 12 to 19 years selected randomly from students referred to different student counseling centers. Exploratory factor analysis categorized the scale into six subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that all items were fitted with the subscales significantly. Content and concurrent validity demonstrated good validity and reliability for each subscale. Overall reliability was also significantly acceptable.     

Cultural–geographical differences in the occurrence of child physical abuse? A meta‐analysis of global prevalence

Our comprehensive meta‐analysis combined prevalence figures of child physical abuse reported in 111 studies, including 168 independent samples with a total of 9,698,801 participants. The overall estimated prevalence was 3/1000 for studies using informants and 226/1000 for studies using self‐report measures of child physical abuse, with no apparent gender differences. Methodological factors partly explained the vast variation of self‐reported prevalence rates in individual studies. The highest prevalence rates were found for studies using a broad definition of child physical abuse, studies measuring physical abuse over the longest period of 0–18 years, studies using college samples, studies in which adults served as respondents, and studies using more questions on physical abuse. Cultural–geographical factors did not seem to affect prevalence rates of physical abuse, which may be partly due to procedural factors. More crosscultural research on physical abuse is badly needed, especially in Africa and South America. We conclude that child physical abuse is a widespread, global phenomenon affecting the lives of millions of children all over the world, which is in sharp contrast with the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child.     

Child maltreatment, non-suicidal self-injury, and the mediating role of self-criticism

We examined the relation between child maltreatment and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Participants were 86 adolescents who completed measures of child maltreatment, self-criticism, perceived criticism, depression, and NSSI. Analyses revealed significant, small-to-medium associations between specific forms of child maltreatment (physical neglect, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse) and the presence of a recent history of NSSI. Emotional and sexual abuse had the strongest relations with NSSI, and the data supported a theoretical model in which self-criticism mediates the relation between emotional abuse and engagement in NSSI. Specificity for the mediating role of self-criticism was demonstrated by ruling out alternative mediation models. Taken together, these results indicate that several different forms of childhood maltreatment are associated with NSSI and illuminate one mechanism through which maltreatment may be associated with NSSI. Future research is needed to test the temporal relation between maltreatment and NSSI and should aim to identify additional pathways to engagement in NSSI.     

The caregiving relationship under stress: foster carers’ experience of loss of the sense of self

This paper is an account of a piece of research which involved interviewing six foster carers who had ended a placement with a child under the age of five with an early experience of abuse and neglect. The paper describes one of the themes that emerged from the data analysis, the loss of the sense of self in the foster carers, and argues that the experience of attempting to provide care for these children led to internal shifts in the carers that reverberated throughout the network around the child. The paper suggests that knowing about the external reasons for placement breakdown is not enough without taking into account the impact on the internal world of the foster carers and the emotional impact of attempting to provide care for a child who has experienced abuse and neglect.     

儿童期虐待对大学生情绪调节自我效能感的影响

探讨大学生儿童期虐待与情绪调节自我效能感(RESE)的关系。采用儿童期虐待问卷和情绪调节自我效能感量表调查472名大学生,筛选未受虐待者为对照组,并设定情感虐待伴情感忽视(EAEN)、情感忽视伴躯体忽视(ENPN)和情感虐待伴躯体忽视(EAPN)共3个实验组。结果表明：⑴躯体虐待、情感虐待、性虐待、躯体忽视和情感忽视发生率分别为7.3%、40.2%、12.0%、42.1%、41.3%;⑵典型相关分析发现,虐待和RESE的整体相关显著,虐待变量和RESE变量可被自身典型变量解释的比例分别为34.5%和36.8%,冗余指数分别6.7和7.2;⑶EAEN和ENPN组调节生气/愤怒情绪效能感得分显著高于EAPN组,对照组调节积极情绪效能感得分显著高于3个实验组。     

Childhood Emotional Abuse and Young Adulthood Dating Violence: The Moderating Role of Stress Reactivity

Dating violence has been linked to past experiences of childhood emotional abuse; however, little research has explored how stress reactivity functions within interpersonal relationships to amplify or attenuate these associations. The present study investigated the moderating effects of cortisol stress reactivity on associations between retrospective self-reported childhood emotional abuse and later self-reported interpersonal violence in young adult dating relationships. The current sample consisted of 57 young adult heterosexual dating partners (46 females, 11 males) between the ages of 18 and 24. Salivary cortisol samples were collected before and after a stress task to measure stress reactivity. Moderation analyses were conducted through the PROCESS macro in SPSS version 22. The relation between childhood emotional abuse and dating violence varied depending on cortisol reactivity, such that the association between childhood emotional abuse and young adult dating violence was stronger for those who demonstrated low levels of cortisol reactivity. The association between childhood emotional abuse and dating violence was not significant for those who demonstrated high cortisol reactivity. Findings underscore the importance of studying physiological mechanisms that may confer risk in the relationship between child emotional abuse and later interpersonal consequences.     

The relationship between parental physical availability and child sexual,physical and emotional abuse: a study among a sample of university students in South Africa

The relationship between perceived parental physical availability and child sexual, physical and emotional abuse was investigated. The sample comprised 722 undergraduate students of psychology at the University of the North, South Africa. Participants filled in a retrospective self-rated questionnaire in a classroom setting. The questionnaire asked about perceived parental physical availability during childhood, and childhood sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Logistic regression analysis showed that, among all the participants, the factors "the participant not living with the natural (biological) mother until he or she was at least 16 years old" and "have ever had a stepfather or adoptive father until he or she was at least 16 years old" predicted child sexual abuse; and "have ever had a stepfather or adoptive father until he or she was at least 16 years old" predicted child emotional abuse. None of the other aspects of parental availability considered predicted child physical abuse. Mental health and social workers, educators and law enforcement agencies dealing with prevention and protection against child abuse should take note of the above identified predictors while designing programs for the eradication of child sexual, physical and emotional abuse.     

Emotional Abuse in the Classroom: Implications and Interventions for Counselors

Emotional abuse of students by teachers is a topic infrequently discussed in the child abuse literature. In some classrooms, it can be a daily occurrence. This article defines emotional abuse and discusses the types of classroom behaviors teachers may demonstrate that are emotionally abusive to students. The role of school‐based counselors in the prevention and treatment of emotional abuse is discussed.     

The making of an abuser

This paper investigates how it is that a child has become an abuser, and by what means that process may be deconstructed. We know that abusers generally have a childhood history of abuse, though not necessarily sexual. Since not all children who have been traumatised repeat those patterns, and inflict abuse on others, then something must have happened for these particular children in response to their abuse. The author elaborates the view that there is no such thing, to paraphrase Winnicott, as ‘an abused child’ – no such child, that is, separate from the world of the relationships that formed him. He draws on the conceptualisation by Bentovim of an interlocking set of roles described as a ‘trauma organised system’; this notion reflects the fact that the child is a product not just of his specifically traumatic experiences but of a milieu in which power and control is exerted by someone who has typically succeeded in neutralising any caring function in a family in order to bring about the exploitation of a child. Clinical material is presented from the intensive psychotherapy of a nine-year-old boy, who happened also to be a refugee, for whom abusive family dynamics dominated his internal world. He was found to have identified with the abuser, his own father, in order to escape the pain of his victim self and was threatening to act this out in the treatment, making the therapist into a victim. Management of the treatment setting by the inclusion of a benign parental figure enabled the acting out to be contained. Symbolisation of the child’s inner conflicts became possible through play. As the abuser self was contained so the child’s victim experiences could be processed. The conclusion is drawn that engaging therapeutically with the residues of trauma from the beginning of treatment is essential in working with young people who have abused.     

Growing Up with Child Sexual Abuse in an Experimental Commune: Making Sense of Narrative Variation

The legitimacy of adult's accounts of child sexual abuse depends on the consistency of the story they tell about this experience. But there are a variety of influences that conspire to create dynamic variation in retrospective accounts of child sexual abuse. In a study of an experimental New Zealand commune called Centrepoint, participants showed considerable variation in accounting for the child sexual abuse that was known to have occurred there. We used a narrative methodology to show the variation between stories that highlighted abuse and suffering and others that represented an idyllic childhood within which sex between children and adults was normalised. There was also considerable variation within individual participant's accounts. The variation within and between accounts was shaped by features such exposure to contradictory experiences, different social positioning in relation to child sexual abuse, shifts in memory and interpretation over time, differences between insider and outsider perspectives on child sexual activity at the commune and alternative perspectives on victimhood. This research challenges the mythology that accounts of child sexual abuse should be expected to be clear and consistent. Instead, variation should be treated the rule rather than the exception in these accounts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Universality of Childhood Emotional Abuse: A Meta-Analysis of Worldwide Prevalence

This comprehensive meta-analysis combined prevalence figures of child emotional abuse reported in 29 studies, including 46 independent samples with a total of 7,082,279 participants. The overall estimated prevalence was 3/1,000 for studies using informants and 363/1,000 for studies using self-report measures of child emotional abuse. Procedural factors seem to exert a greater influence on the prevalence of childhood emotional abuse than sample characteristics and definitional issues, without fully explaining the vast variation of prevalence rates reported in individual studies. We conclude that child emotional abuse is a universal problem affecting the lives of millions of children all over the world, which is in sharp contrast with the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child.     

The School Functioning of Individuals with Childhood Experiences of Sexual Abuse: Results and Implications of a South African Study

This study investigated the school functioning of individuals with childhood sexual experiences in South Africa. The nature of the study was qualitative, and employed two data collection strategies: in-depth individual interviews with 22 survivors of child sexual abuse and focus interviews with two groups of teachers. The study revealed that participants' emotional reaction to the abuse affected three broad areas of school functioning: concentration, interest in school-related activities and school adjustment. The intensity of these problems varied across participants. The findings are consistent with Finkelhor and Browne's (1986) traumagenic model, which suggests that the experience of child sexual abuse often results in feelings that interfere with one's cognitive development and emotional orientations to the world and causes trauma by distorting the victim's self concept and worldview.     

Mentalization-based therapy with maltreated children living in shelters in southern Brazil: A single case study

This study describes the mentalization-based child therapy of a boy who suffered from early abuse and neglect, who was living in a shelter in southern Brazil. This single case study aimed at assessing whether this kind of psychotherapy contributes to reducing depressive symptoms and developing a greater capacity for reflection on the mental states of self and other, as part of developing a more coherent sense of self. Structured assessments were conducted before therapy and after six months of treatment, and the audio-recorded treatment sessions were analyzed using content analysis, in order to identify key themes in the treatment itself. The results suggested a significant improvement in depressive symptoms and some changes in mentalization with the beginnings of a movement toward a more cohesive and integrated self. We argue that mentalization-based child therapy could be a promising therapeutic approach for children who have experienced severe disruptions of emotional bonds, due to the way it focuses on the capacity to regulate affect and develop a more coherent sense of self.     

The Relation Between Child Maltreatment and Adolescent Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review and Critical Examination of the Literature

A large body of research suggests that child maltreatment (CM) is associated with adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts. These studies, however, have not been critically examined and summarized in a manner that allows us to draw firm conclusions and make recommendations for future research and clinical work in this area. In this review, we evaluated all of the research literature to date examining the relationship between CM and adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts. Results generally suggest that childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect are associated with adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts across community, clinical, and high-risk samples, using cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. In most studies, these associations remain significant when controlling for covariates such as youth demographics, mental health, family, and peer-related variables. When different forms of CM are examined in the same multivariate analysis, most research suggests that each form of CM maintains an independent association with adolescent suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. However, a subset of studies yielded evidence to suggest that sexual abuse and emotional abuse may be relatively more important in explaining suicidal behavior than physical abuse or neglect. Research also suggests an additive effect—each form of CM contributes unique variance to adolescent suicide attempts. We discuss the current limitations of this literature and offer recommendations for future research. We conclude with an overview of the clinical implications of this research, including careful, detailed screening of CM history, past suicidal behavior, and current suicidal ideation, as well as the need for integrated treatment approaches that effectively address both CM and adolescent suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.     

Self‐analysis and the development of an interpretation

In spite of the fact that Freud's self‐analysis was at the centre of so many of his discoveries, self‐analysis remains a complex, controversial and elusive exercise. While self‐analysis is often seen as emerging at the end of an analysis and then used as a criteria in assessing the suitability for termination, I try to attend to the patient's resistance to self‐analysis throughout an analysis. I take the view that the development of the patient's capacity for self‐analysis within the analytic session contributes to the patient's growth and their creative and independent thinking during the analysis, which prepares him or her for a fuller life after the formal analysis ends. The model I will present is based on an over lapping of the patient's and the analyst's self‐analysis, with recognition and use of the analyst's counter‐transference. My focus is on the analyst's self‐analysis that is in response to a particular crisis of not knowing, which results in feeling intellectually and emotionally stuck. This paper is not a case study, but a brief look at the process I went through to arrive at a particular interpretation with a particular patient during a particular session. I will concentrate on resistances in which both patient and analyst initially rely upon what is consciously known.     

When Compassion is Making It Worse: Social Dynamics of Tabooing Victims of Child Sexual Abuse

The paper explores the social dynamics of tabooing, using sexual abuse of children as an example. Some social categories are problematic to embrace, because they entail socially problematic category bound activities in an emotional context of guilt and shame. This theoretical paper shows how a victim of sexual abuse as a child may suffer from two separate offenses, a sexual and a social; one caused by actions of the offender, one caused by actions of intended helpers. By ascribing an identity of ‘incest victim’ or ‘victim of child sexual abuse’ to a person, the taboo act becomes linked to the person. This may be an inescapable ascribed identity for the person, leading her/him to be subject of both sexual and social offenses. As a consequence, potential ‘victims’ may have troubled affiliation with such identity casting, and may fight a future tabooed role by not reporting tabooed abusive actions, hence not receiving the help needed to recover.     

人际自立特质对大学生情绪调节策略作用的纵向研究

虽然不少学者认为人格会影响情绪调节策略的使用,但是目前尚缺乏人格与认知重评、表达抑制这两种情绪调节策略关系的纵向研究。根据人际自立与情绪关系的系列研究,假设人际自立会影响情绪调节策略的使用。采用青少年学生人际自立量表和情绪调节问卷对374名大学生进行了间隔6个月的两次调查。结果发现,人际主动、人际灵活显著预测6个月后的认知重评。这说明某些人格特质可以影响特定情绪调节策略的使用。     

Parental Stress and Children’s Social and Behavioral Outcomes: The Role of Abuse Potential over Time

Parental stress is a well-established risk factor for adverse child outcomes, including the development of aggression, externalizing behavior problems, and anxiety, as well as compromised emotional coping, impaired social cognition, and diminished treatment response. Abuse potential represents a mechanism by which parental stress may impact child social competence and behavior; evidence links parental stress to abuse potential, and abuse potential to a range of negative child social competence and behavioral outcomes. The current study assessed relationships between parental stress, abuse potential, and child social and behavioral outcomes over time. Parents of children ages 2–6 years (N?=?610, 44% girls) reported on perceived parental stress and attitudes towards abuse and neglect, as well as child social competence and behavior problems, before and after a caregiver-directed, community-based intervention. Changes in parental stress, abuse potential, and child social and behavioral outcomes were examined using panel analyses, while controlling for intervention effects and demographic variables. Parental stress predicted child social competence, anxiety/withdrawal, and anger/aggression over time; while the links between stress and anxiety/withdrawal, and stress and social competence, were mediated by child abuse potential, the link between stress and anger/aggression was not mediated by child abuse potential. Findings suggest that abuse potential represents a mechanism by which parental stress and child social and behavioral outcomes are linked. Further, screening for child social competence deficits may identify children at risk for abuse, as well as parents in need of services to reduce stress.     

Child Maltreatment,Emotion Regulation,and Posttraumatic Stress: The Impact of Emotional Abuse

This study examined the relationship of emotion regulation to multiple forms of child abuse and subsequent posttraumatic stress. Particular consideration was given to emotional abuse, which has received less attention in the literature. Results from a survey of 912 female college students revealed that women who reported a history of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse endorsed greater emotion regulation difficulties compared to women without abuse histories. Notably, emotional abuse was the strongest predictor of emotion deregulation. Mediation analyses indicated that emotion dysregulation partially explained the relationship between physical and emotional abuse and symptoms of posttraumatic stress, suggesting that intervention efforts aimed at improving emotion regulation strategies might be beneficial in decreasing posttraumatic stress among women with child maltreatment histories.     

The drama of the gifted child and the psycho-analyst's narcissistic disturbance.

In order to develop a true self, the child needs, in the first weeks and months of his life, his mother's appropriate emotional response, mirroring and respect. These narcissistic aspects have to be distinguished from the drive wishes. Only the mother's appropriate responses make it possible for the child to experience his feelings as belonging to his own self. If the child does not get the right narcissistic response, he will continue to search for narcissistic supplies for the rest of his life. The most suitable objects for this will be his own children initially, who are completely at his disposal. Specially gifted children who are sensitive, alert and have many 'antennae', will quickly learn to adapt to the narcissistic needs of their parents. Their behaviour will then give the mother all the mirroring, consideration and admiration which she had missed as a child herself. The result will be that, in spite of excellent performance, the child's own true self cannot develop. All this leads to narcissistic vulnerability and to new attempts in the adult to find at last an available 'mother' in his own child, partner, or, if he has become a psycho-analyst, in his patient. In the transference this type of analysand first experiences narcissistic rage before deep mourning is possible. This process of mourning enables him finally to accept his own deprivation as a child, to give up the unconscious idealizations and with them the hope of finding such a 'mother'. This leads regularly to the liberation of the life forces and allows creativity to develop. Only after this has been achieved is the analysis of drive conflicts possible and becomes emotionally effective.