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.     

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but Words Relate to Adult Physiology? Child Abuse Experience and Women's Sympathetic Nervous System Response while Self-Reporting Trauma

Child abuse predicts a wide range of long-lasting deleterious outcomes, including disruptions in the biological systems central to emotion arousal and regulation. However, little is known about the specific ways in which child abuse affects adulthood sympathetic reactivity and recovery. This study investigated the association between child abuse experience and adult skin conductance level and habituation in 85 at-risk women as they completed a self-report trauma questionnaire. Childhood emotional abuse was independently associated with blunted skin conductance habituation over the course of survey completion after controlling for other abuse subtypes and current trauma symptoms. These results suggest that women emotionally abused as children experience prolonged emotional arousal and poor physiological regulation of emotion in response to reminders of traumatic experiences.     

Identity and Emotional Competence as Mediators of the Relation between Childhood Psychological Maltreatment and Adult Love Relationships

This study tested whether identity formation and emotional competence mediated the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and adult attachment styles, and tested the differential long-term effects of psychological abuse and neglect. The sample included 187 undergraduates in romantic relationships. Measures assessed the extent of childhood trauma, family expressiveness, alexithymia, self-esteem, self-concept, and adult attachment style. Results of path analysis showed that emotional competence, but not self-identity, mediated the relationship between psychological maltreatment and adult attachment styles. Self-identity mediated the relationship between psychological maltreatment and emotional competence. Emotional abuse and neglect both were associated with lack of contentment, sense of worthiness and significance, alexithymia, and fearful adult attachment style. Results support the importance of emotional competence for forming adult romantic relationships.     

Gender Differences in Reporting Psychological Abuse in a National Sample

Understanding the nature and impact of psychological abuse for males and females is crucial because it might be the precursor of other forms of violence. This study examines reported gender differences in psychologically abusive acts using a national sample of U.S. citizens. The data were collected anonymously from an online administration of the Measure of Psychological Abuse (MPAB). Other measures were included to assess outcomes that might occur due to psychological abuse. Results indicate that there are more similarities than differences in the gender reports of psychological abuse. Compared to males' reports, differences include female reports of certain behaviors leading to more negative emotional and behavioral impact and more negative outcomes due to being in a psychologically abusive relationship.     

The association of relational and physical victimization with hostile attribution bias,emotional distress,and depressive symptoms: A cross‐cultural study

The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between relational victimization and socio‐cognitive patterns (i.e. hostile attribution biases and emotional distress) or social–psychological adjustment problems (i.e. depressive symptoms) in Japanese and European American children (N = 272; ages 9–10). Results showed that relational victimization, which was conceptually different from physical victimization, was associated with a greater level of emotional distress for an overall sample; however, the links between relational victimization and hostile attribution biases and depressive symptoms were evidenced only for Japanese children. A follow‐up analysis revealed that hostile attribution biases had a direct effect on depressive symptoms for European American children; however, these biases mediated the link between relational victimization and depressive symptoms for Japanese children. These findings are discussed from normative and cross‐cultural perspectives.     

Ambivalence over emotional expression and symptom attribution are associated with self‐reported somatic symptoms in Singaporean school adolescents

Although somatization is common across cultures, its meanings may differ as culture shapes emotional experience. Thus, instead of treating somatization as a form of psychopathology, it is more useful to conceptualize it as an idiom of distress, and how complaints of somatic symptoms are related to social relationships, patterns of emotional expression and symptom attribution in a cultural context. This study seeks to explore whether ambivalence over emotional expression and causal attribution would shed light on the meanings of somatization among Asian adolescents. Three hundred secondary school adolescents in Singapore participated in this study. The main results show that emotional ambivalence, biomedical and Traditional Chinese Medicinal causal beliefs, and magical attribution contributed to additional variance in somatic symptoms over and above the variance explained by emotional distress. These findings are discussed from both psychological and cultural perspectives.     

Enhancing Emotional and Social Competence in a Group of South-African School Beginners: A Preliminary Study

This study piloted the efficacy of a short-term intervention program for socio-emotional development in pre-schoolers.in a South African setting. Participants were 48 learners, aged between 5 and 6 years (22 boys, 26 girls). A proportion of the participants (n=26) took the socio-emotional competence development intervention. Programme effects were measured using the Social Competence and Behavioural Evaluation, Preschool Edition (SCBE) and the Griffiths Developmental Scales—Extended Revised (GMDS-ER). Between group comparisons showed significant gains in internalization and social competence skills in favour of the intervention group as compared to the control group.     

Parent-rated socio-emotional development in children with language impairment in comparison with typically developed children

Children with language impairment (LI) and children with typical development (TD) were assessed by their respective parents using The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (Swedish version SECDI) and Greenspan Socio Emotional Growth Chart (GSEGC). The aim was to investigate socio-emotional and language development in children with LI and TD with respect to possible differential patterns and relations between the groups. The results highlight a clear association between language and socio-emotional development. Children with LI were rated similar to young language-matched children with TD, but significantly lower relative to age-matched TD children, particularly concerning symbolic stages of development: the use of linguistic symbols as well as related areas such as symbol play and symbolic mental ability. The results are discussed in light of presumable background factors and possible consequences for children or sub-groups of children with LI.     

Promoting emotional well-being through the use of humour

Humour skills programmes are believed to assist in improving emotional well-being by increasing self-efficacy, positive thinking, optimism and perceptions of control, while decreasing negative thinking, perceptions of stress, depression, anxiety and stress. The study aims to evaluate a programme investigating this possibility. Volunteers from the community (37 females and 18 males, aged M?=?38 years) were randomly assigned to a humour group, a social group or a non-intervention control group. The programme, consisting of a manual and a booklet of measures assessing indices of well-being, was administered over an 8-week period. Data were collected at baseline, post programme and at 3-month follow-up. Results revealed that unlike the control and social groups, the humour group demonstrated a significant increase in several indices of emotional well-being. Specifically, increases occurred with self-efficacy, positive affect, optimism and perceptions of control, while decreases were found in perceived stress, depression, anxiety and stress levels.     

Time-limited effects of emotional arousal on item and source memory

Two experiments investigated the time-limited effects of emotional arousal on consolidation of item and source memory. In Experiment 1, participants memorized words (items) and the corresponding speakers (sources) and then took an immediate free recall test. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video 5, 35, or 50?min after learning, and 24 hours later they took surprise memory tests. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that (a) a reality monitoring task was used; (b) elicitation delays of 5, 30, and 45?min were used; and (c) delayed memory tests were given 60?min after learning. Both experiments showed that, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal did not enhance item recall memory. Second, both experiments showed that negative arousal enhanced delayed item recognition memory only at the medium elicitation delay, but not in the shorter or longer delays. Positive arousal enhanced performance only in Experiment 1. Third, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal had little effect on source memory. These findings have implications for theories of emotion and memory, suggesting that emotion effects are contingent upon the nature of the memory task and elicitation delay.