Peer First Impressions of Childhood Maltreatment Victims

The impact of childhood maltreatment effects can extend beyond the immediate stress of abusive family environments. College students (N = 435) exposed to childhood domestic violence or parental physical abuse were expected to be viewed less favorably by their peers than their nonabused counterparts. They were expected as well to be less accurate in predicting the first impressions left on their peers after 25-minute unstructured interactions. Partial support was found for both hypotheses. Relatively harsher (d = .49) peer first impressions were found among domestic violence witnesses. Domestic violence (d = .58) and parental physical abuse (d = .49) victims overestimated peer ratings. Social anxiety during peer interactions was higher among women exposed to either form of childhood maltreatment. Men from violent families viewed themselves less favorably than their peers (r = .22, p < .05). These results further implicate childhood maltreatment as a contributing factor in peer distancing and rejection.