The Repercussions of Emotional Abuse and Parenting Styles on Self ...

Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 21:256–276, 2012 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1092-6771 print/1545-083X online DOI: 10.1080/10926771.2012.666335

The Repercussions of Emotional Abuse and Parenting Styles on Self-Esteem, Subjective Well-Being: A Retrospective Study with University Students in Brazil SALLY K. BRODSKI and CLAUDIO S. HUTZ Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

This study verified the differences in the incidence of memory of emotional abuse among the different parenting styles in students from 18 to 30 years of age at a university in southern Brazil. The relationship between memory of emotional abuse and self-esteem, and subjective well-being was also examined. Students (n = 293) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, published scales measuring self-esteem, life satisfaction, parenting styles, and self-report questionnaires. Negative correlations were found between emotional abuse and self-esteem, positive affect, and life satisfaction. Positive correlations were found between emotional abuse, age, and negative affect. Memories of emotional abuse were significantly more frequent in students who reported being raised under negligent and authoritarian parenting styles than in those who were raised under the other parenting styles. KEYWORDS emotional abuse, parenting styles, self-esteem, subjective well-being

The emerging concern about the origin of emotional abuse (EA) as well as the repercussions of negative experiences during childhood and adolescence have been the focus of studies among several researchers in the field of mental health (Albornoz & Nunes, 2004; Garbarino, 1978, 1991; Hart

Submitted 26 October 2010; revised 8 February 2011, 22 February 2011; accepted 29 March 2011. Address correspondence to Sally K. Brodski, Rua Ramiro Barcelos, 2600, Bairro Santa Cecília, Porto Alegre, Brazil RS 90035–003. E-mail: [email protected] 256

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& Brassard, 1987). Nevertheless, there has been difficulty in operationally defining emotional abuse and neglect. According to Goldsmith and Freyd (2005), the terms abuse and maltreatment are considered, by a few, to be unnecessary, demeaning, and problematic regarding emotional abuse and neglect. The difficulty in naming acts as abusive happens especially in cases where there is no clear intent to harm the child, even though interaction between caregiver and child is openly deleterious. In addition, research and practice on emotional abuse and neglect have been growing in the last three decades in the United States, but in Brazil, very little empirical literature that contemplates emotional abuse is found. In Brazil, the Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (Child and Adolescent Statute; ECA, 1990) was created in 1990 to look after the children’s and adolescents’ rights. The ECA was created to provide children and adolescents all available opportunities so that their physical, moral, spiritual, and social development can be enabled with freedom and dignity (ECA, 1990). Attempts have been made to offer appropriate definitions of EA, for it is manifested in a subtle fashion, leaving deep emotional scars, despite social or cultural background underlying all other forms of child abuse (Goldsmith & Freyd, 2005; O’Hagan, 1995; Portwood, 1999). O’Hagan (1995) suggested that EA and psychological abuse (or maltreatment) should be distinguished from each other. Psychological abuse is regarded as impeding the cognitive and moral faculties. Nevertheless, this distinction is not considered useful, because cognition and emotion are not independent from one another; cognitive appraisal of experiences has an effect on the affective experience and vice versa (Glaser, 2002). Garbarino, Guttman, and Seeley (1986) redefined psychological maltreatment (in this article it is considered a synonym for EA) as a concerted attack by an adult on a child’s development of self and social competence, and a pattern of psychically destructive behavior. Myers (2010) unified the concept of EA and neglect by adding medical and educational neglect to isolating, terrorizing, exploiting or corrupting, and denying emotional responsiveness. There has been reluctance to use the term abuse and that leads to underrecognition of EA (Finzi-Dottan & Karu, 2006; Garbarino, 1978; Myers, 2010; O’Hagan, 1995). However, the importance of using the terms abuse, neglect, or maltreatment is that, in practice, these terms encompass a professional need to intervene to achieve protection for the child. The deleterious consequences of delayed recognition are that children can be exposed to a longer period of abuse and neglect; therefore, interactional patterns will become rooted and harder to modify. There is a need to refine the definitions as well as to recognize the association with emotional, behavioral, and cognitive difficulties later in childhood (Finzi-Dottan & Karu, 2006; Myers, 2010), adolescence (Morton & Salovitz, 2006) and adulthood (Festinger & Baker, 2010; Myers, 2010). When EA and neglect are inflicted,

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the abuser is almost always the child’s primary caretaker and attachment figure. Therefore, there is a concern that if protection requires withdrawal of the child from the abusive situation or environment, it will be at the cost of interrupting an attachment bond, even if an insecure one. However, if the abuse is recognized at an early stage, there is a possibility of therapeutic intervention without removing the child. EA and neglect are defined as a caregiver–child relationship that is characterized by harmful interactions that do not require physical contact with the subject (Glaser, 2002). It was found that motivation to harm the child is not necessary. When considering child abuse and neglect in general, a central premise is that the responsibility for ensuring the relationship between parent and child is not abusive or neglectful lies with the parent (Glaser, 2002). Binggeli, Hart, and Brassard (2002) estimated that EA might have been a significant presence in the childhood histories of more than one third of the general adult population of the United States with an estimate that 10% to 15% of all people have experienced more severe and chronic forms of this abuse. The phenomenon of child abuse in general is not limited to the United States, and research on the subject is needed from and largely applicable to all peoples of the world (Carleton, 2006). In Brazil, there is a lack of empirical studies about this form of abuse. Some authors think that EA is not clearly demarcated by any specific behavior concerning the abuser. The definitions tend to be based on the victim’s perception about the attempt (Waller, Corstorphine, & Mountford, 2007). However, Myers (2010) stated that EA is defined in terms of perpetrator acts, rather than in the effects on the child. Such acts are judged to be abusive based on their nature, including factors such as severity, frequency, and meaning, and they must be assessed in their ecological context to determine if they place a child at a significant risk for harm or violate the standard of care. In the reexamination of the multifaceted definitions of the concept of EA, Hart et al. (2010) identified a deficient empathy on the part of parents or caretakers, together with an emotional unavailability with a subcategory of this broader concept, naming it denial of emotional responsiveness. These inappropriate acts harm the development of self-esteem, social skills, and capacity for intimacy, likely causing a handicap for future healthy interpersonal relationships and a lack of care by the parents, and are therefore regarded as EA (Albornoz & Nunes, 2004; Garbarino, 1991; Hart et al., 2010; Morton & Salovitz, 2006; O’Hagan, 1995). Empirical studies corroborated that EA predicts unfavorable consequences of greater depth than physical abuse, and this harm extends into adult life (Erickson & Egeland, 2011; Hart, Binggeli, & Brassard, 1998). It is important to note that EA and neglect exist independently of other forms of abuse and neglect, but the opposite is not always the case (Egeland, 2009).


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This research aimed to study the relationship among EA (including emotional neglect), self-esteem, subjective well-being and parenting styles in a Brazilian sample.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE AND SELF-ESTEEM Self-esteem level refers to people’s representations of their typical, or general, global feelings of self-worth. Thus, self-esteem reflects people’s representations of how they typically feel about themselves through time and context. Although these representations can change, they usually develop slowly over an extended period of time (Rosenberg, 1986). Furthermore, self-esteem level exhibits considerable rank-order stability, even over a period of many years (Rosenberg, 1986). Developmentally, harsh or controlling family environments are thought to promote fragile, unstable feelings of self-worth (Kernis, Brown, & Brody, 2000). Self-esteem is expressed through an attitude of approval or repulsion toward oneself and includes self-judgment, an overall evaluation of one’s worth or value (Rosenberg, 1965). Personal judgment is revealed through the person’s attitude toward himself or herself, becoming a subjective experience accessible to people through verbal discourse, and observable behavior (Avanci, Assis, Santos & Oliveira, 2007). Clinical studies have tried to understand the mechanisms that link childhood EA and psychopathology in adult life (Myers, 2010). The child who is emotionally abused has damaged self-esteem due to the harm affecting the notion of well-being well into adult life (Finzi-Dottan & Karu, 2006; Garbarino, 1978; Myers, 2010). According to Garbarino et al. (1986), investigators who have carefully explored families involved in abuse report that one form of abuse rarely occurs alone, or when the relationship between parents and children is nurturing. Tavares (2004) conveyed that many parents contribute to the decreased self-esteem of their children by constantly reprimanding them Child then starts thinking of themselves as incapable of doing anything correctly, resulting in a negative self-image.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING The literature on subjective well-being has focused on how and why people experience their lives in positive ways, including both cognitive judgments and affective reactions. As such, it covers studies that have used various terms like happiness, satisfaction, morale, and positive affect. It is important to consider here that happiness has affective and cognitive dimensions that are dynamically related. The affective component is based on personal

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experiences and shapes the mood as well as the emotions. That being said, the person’s affect comes from a balance between pleasant and unpleasant emotional experiences such as happiness, pleasure, anxiety, and anger, in addition to contextual factors like socioeconomic conditions, health, and other variables that would allow an objective evaluation of quality of life (Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003). Conversely, the cognitive component is characterized by an individual’s perception of his or her satisfaction and fulfillment with life. Diener (1984) describes subjective well-being under three categories. One of them, used in this study, investigates what makes people evaluate their lives under positive terms. Life satisfaction is regarded as the cognitive component that complements happiness, the affective dimension of positive functioning. According to Giacomoni (2004), the most commonly used assessment instruments for subjective well-being in research with adults are currently the Life Satisfaction Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). Findings on developmental psychopathology observed that a high adaptation level and an empathic attunement to the child’s needs translate into empathic responsiveness, facilitating psychological well-being and stable, enduring self-esteem (Kohut, 1977, 1984; Kohut & Wolf, 1978; Winnicott, 1986, 1988). Recent empirical studies have found that a lack of the affective component of well-being is linked to damaged self-esteem and depression (Moor & Silvern, 2006). Ryan and Deci (2000) hypothesized that the pursuit and attainment of some life goals will provide relatively direct satisfaction of basic needs, thus enhancing well-being. On the other hand, the pursuit and attainment of other goals does not contribute to and could even detract from basic need satisfaction, leading to ill-being. Sheldon, Elliot, Kim, and Kasser (2001) posited that although all humans might need certain basic experiences to be happy, different cultures might emphasize or condone some experiences more than others, leading to meaningful variations within the basic set. Also there is no assumption that satisfaction of any particular need is a precondition for the satisfaction of any other need. Sheldon et al. found in their study that experiential contents and characteristics that make people happiest, and qualify as psychological needs, were autonomy, competence, relatedness, and self-esteem. Security might also be a need that becomes salient in times of privation. In this regard, this is one of the few studies that assessed empirically the links between memories of EA and symptoms by exploring the mediating role of perceived parenting failure of empathy, which refers to an exceedingly subtle and elusive form of abuse that often goes unnoticed while inflicting serious emotional damage associated with psychological impairment. A recent article by Festinger and Baker (2010) explored the relationships among recalled EA, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Greenfield


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and Marks (2010) found a negative relationship between recalled EA and subjective well-being. Nevertheless, no studies were found in Brazil showing correlations between subjective well-being and EA.

EMOTIONAL ABUSE AND PARENTING STYLES Parenting styles include, basically, the parents’ attitude toward disciplinary problems, behavior control, children’s emotional needs, and decision making. Baumrind (1967, 1971) described parenting styles as globally stable patterns of behavior toward parenting in her typology of socialization practices. She defined three patterns of parenting control (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) and their consequences on the children. Later, Maccoby and Martin (1983) reclassified the styles from a demanding perspective (control, establishment of behavior patterns, discipline) as well as a responsiveness one (communication, affectivity, acquiescence) available on the parents’ part. Thus, four parenting styles emerged: the authoritarian and authoritative pattern described by Baumrind (1967, 1971), and the new indulgent and negligent styles. Parents who use the authoritarian style (high demand and low responsiveness) expect obedience and are more coercive, seeking authority, without encouraging communication and autonomy. Authoritative parents, with high demand and low responsiveness, discuss the restrictions imposed and favor communication, encouraging autonomy by being responsive. The indulgent style (low demand and high responsiveness) is characterized by tolerance, affection, and low control. These parents are compliant, rarely making demands or giving punishment. In the negligent style, (low demand and responsiveness) parents are lower in controlling the children’s behavior as well as addressing their needs and demonstrating affection. Children raised under this style show the poorest scores of adjustment of the four styles, with less social and cognitive competence and more internalizing symptoms and behavior issues (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001; Reppold & Hutz, 2003). Findings have documented that parenting failure of empathy is strongly associated with occurrence of child abuse and contributes significantly to psychological maladjustment. In this sense, deficient parenting empathy could be seen as a strong component of EA and a strong predictor of longterm psychological impairment (Iwaniec, 1996; Moor & Silvern, 2006). EA is defined here as acts of omission or commission inflicted by the parents or caretakers, based on community standards and professional expertise, as being psychologically damaging. This study examined memories of EA in a Brazilian sample. It aimed to investigate the relationship among memory of EA, self-esteem, and subjective well-being. We examined if there was a difference in the incidence or

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the memory of EA according to parenting style, and whether there was a difference in the incidence of positive and negative affect, subjective well-being, and self-esteem according to the parenting style.

METHOD Participants Participants were 293 university students (65.4% women, 34.6% men), ranging from 18 to 30 years of age (M = 20.7 years, SD = 2.7), from a university in southern Brazil. Participants were chosen by convenience and their participation was voluntary.

Procedures The participants were tested in groups, although they were able to keep their responses confidential. Following an explanation of the study, each participant was asked to complete a series of questionnaires. In the event a participant wished to discuss issues raised by the questionnaires, sources of support were made available.

Measures Six questionnaires and scales were administered. A sociodemographic questionnaire established the background characteristics of the respondent group. A childhood trauma questionnaire and a parenting style questionnaire set a benchmark for each participant’s memories. Finally, three scales recorded current status of each participant.

SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC

QUESTIONNAIRE

This questionnaire was designed to be completed in a few minutes and it asked questions about age, sex, program, family income, marital status, upbringing, cohabitation, occupation, use of medication, presence or absence of illnesses, corresponding treatment, psychological and medical care, and previous experience of violence.

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA QUESTIONNAIRE The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Fink, 1998) was adapted and validated for use in Brazil by Grassi-Oliveira, Stein, and Pezzi


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(2006) and refined by Brodski, Hutz, and Zanon (2010). The CTQ is a 28item retrospective self-report questionnaire designed to assess five types of negative childhood experiences. This form was translated and validated for use in Brazilian Portuguese for teenagers and young adults and named Questionário sobre Traumas na Infância (QUESI; Brodski et al., 2010). The emotional abuse subscale reflects the degree to which respondents were verbally demeaned or felt humiliated (e.g., “People in my family called me things like stupid, lazy, or ugly”). The physical abuse subscale reflects the degree to which respondents were physically assaulted in ways that might result in injury (e.g., “I was punished with a belt, a board, a cord, or some other hard object”). The sexual abuse subscale reflects respondents’ experiences of coercive sexual contact (e.g., “Someone tried to make me do sexual things or watch sexual things,” “Someone molested me”). The emotional neglect subscale reflects the degree to which respondents’ emotional needs were not met (e.g., “I felt loved” [reverse scored]). The physical neglect subscale reflects the degree to which respondents’ physical needs were not met (e.g., “I didn’t have enough to eat”). Each subscale includes five items. Three additional items assess tendencies to minimize or deny abuse. Respondents rate the truth of each item when they were growing up on a scale from 1 (never true) to 5 (very often true). Thus, scores range from 5 to 25 for each abuse type. The CTQ has demonstrated reliability and validity, including test–retest reliability. Coefficients range from .79 to .86 over an average of 4 months, and internal consistency reliability coefficients range from .66 to .92 across a range of samples (Bernstein & Fink, 1998). Convergent validity was found with ratings of childhood maltreatment of both clinicians and therapists, and a consistent five-factor structure (Bernstein & Fink, 1998; Bernstein et al., 2003). ROSENBERG SELF-ESTEEM SCALE The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SER; Rosenberg, 1979), adapted in Brazil by Hutz and Zanon (2011), is a 10-item Likert scale with items answered on a 4-point scale—from strongly agree to strongly disagree, with higher scores indicating higher self-esteem. The original sample for which the scale was developed consisted of 5,024 high school juniors and seniors from 10 randomly selected schools in New York State. The participants were instructed to read the list of statements dealing with their general feelings about themselves. If they strongly agreed, they were to circle the response SA. If they agreed with the statement, they were to circle A. If they disagreed, they were to circle D. If they strongly disagreed, they were to circle SD. On this scale, a response of agree or strongly agree is to be scored as positive, unless the item is followed by an R, in which case a response of disagree or strongly

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disagree is to be scored as positive. The SER has high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .78), and high test–retest validity (r = .85). RESPONSIVITY

AND

DEMANDINGNESS SCALE

The Responsivity and Demandingness Scale (Teixeira, Bardagi, & Gomes, 2004) is an index of parenting style developed to approximate the responsiveness and demandingness dimensions suggested by Baumrind (1971) and Maccoby and Martin (1983) (see Table 1). The self-report questionnaires of this study contained 24 items on parenting practices that were taken from existing international measures and adapted to a Brazilian context by Teixeira et al. (2004). The college students completed these measures, answering in separate columns for mother and father. Through its gross scores the, Responsivity and Demandingness Scale allows parenting styles as perceived by the students to be determined. Reliability indexes (Cronbach’s alpha) observed for the final 24-item version (12 related to demandingness and 12 to responsiveness) were between .78 and .92. These results indicate that the new instrument has construct validity and good internal consistency, and can be used in future research and other contexts such as clinical practice or in the school system. SUBJECTIVE

WELL - BEING

Global life satisfaction was assessed with the Life Satisfaction Scale (Diener et al., 1985; Pavot & Diener, 1993; Pavot, Diener, Colvin, & Sandvik, 1991). It was validated and adapted in Brazil by Hutz, Bardagi, and Stenert (2009) and includes five items such as “My life is very close to my ideal” and “ Up to this moment I have achieved the important things I want out of life.” This scale shows adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .91). Positive and negative affect were assessed with the PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) validated and adapted for use in Brazil by Giacomoni and Hutz (1997). The scale consists of a number of adjectives that describe different feelings and emotions and is formed by two orthogonal factors: positive affect (Cronbach’s α = .88) and negative affect (Cronbach’s α = .86). Each factor has 20 items that express the participants’ moods and emotions, such as “friendly,” “careful,” “distressed,” and “impatient.” TABLE 1 Parenting Styles: The Four Interacting Dimensions

Authoritative Authoritarian Indulgent Negligent

Responsivity

Demandingness

↑ ↓ ↑ ↓

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓


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RESULTS Two-way (parenting styles and gender) analyses of variance were performed to examine the differences in means of memories of EA with parenting styles, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect. Table 2 shows the means and standard deviations of these variables. Differences of self-esteem were found for mother’s and father’s parenting styles, F(3, 258) = 12.4, p < .001; and F(3, 258) = 9.1, p < .001, respectively. Post-hoc tests (Scheffe) revealed significant differences between the means of authoritative and negligent parenting style (d = .5, p < .04), authoritative and authoritarian parenting style (d = .8, p < .001), negligent and indulgent parenting style (d = .6, p < .05) and authoritarian and indulgent parenting style (d = .9, p < .001). No significant interactions or gender differences were found. In this study the internal consistency of the SER was Cronbach’s alpha of .89. Mean differences of positive affect were also found among the groups of parenting styles, F(3, 258) = 12.9, p < .001. Post-hoc tests (Scheffe) showed significant differences between the authoritative and negligent maternal and paternal parenting style (d = .7, p < .001), authoritative and authoritarian maternal and paternal parenting style (d = .8, p < .001), negligent and indulgent maternal and paternal parenting style (d = .6, p < .02), and authoritarian and indulgent maternal and paternal parenting style (d = .8, p < .001). No gender differences were found, F(1, 258) < 1. In this study, the internal consistency analysis was Cronbach’s alpha .86 for the subscale of negative affect and .88 for positive affect. Mean differences related to maternal and paternal parenting styles for negative affect were found, F(3, 258) = 8.4, p < .001. Post-hoc tests (Scheffe) revealed significant differences between authoritative and authoritarian maternal parenting style (d = .8, p < .001), as well as authoritarian and indulgent maternal parenting style (d = .8, p < .001), between groups of the authoritative and negligent paternal parenting style (d = .6, p < .005), and authoritative and authoritarian paternal parenting style (d = .8, p < .004). No significant gender differences were found. Differences were found for memories of EA in the maternal parenting style groups, F(3, 247) = 48.0, p < .001. Post-hoc tests (Scheffe) revealed significant differences between authoritative and negligent parenting style (d = 1.2, p < .001), authoritative and authoritarian parenting style (d = 1.4, p < .001), negligent and indulgent parenting style (d = 1.0, p < .001), and authoritarian and indulgent parenting style (d = 1.2, p < .001). No interaction was found between maternal parenting styles and gender, F(3, 247) < 1. This lack of interaction was also found in father’s parenting style and gender, F(3, 258) < 1. No main effect was found regarding gender, F(1, 247) < 1. In this study the internal consistency analysis of the CTQ was a Cronbach’s alpha of .85.

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Mean

15.1 34.0 67.9 41.6 28.1

Variables

Emotional Abuse Self-esteem Positive Affect Negative Affect Life Satisfaction

3.5 4.9 11.8 12.4 5.5

SD

authoritative

23.5 31.3 60.0 47.1 23.5

Mean 7.2 5.3 11.1 14.5 5.9

SD

negligent

24.9 30.0 57.9 52.7 23.3

Mean 6.8 5.2 11.4 14.1 5.6

SD

autoritarian

Maternal parenting style

16.2 34.5 67.6 42.3 27.4

Mean 2.9 3.7 10.8 9.9 4.4

SD

indulgent

15.7 34.1 69.1 40.9 28.7

Mean

3.8 4.3 11.1 11.0 4.5

SD

authoritative

23.0 31.3 60.1 49.1 23.7

Mean

7.2 5.4 11.5 14.9 6.2

SD

negligent

23.0 30.2 57.1 51.1 23.2

Mean

7.2 5.2 11.9 12.8 4.9

SD

authoritarian

Paternal parenting style

17.2 34.0 67.2 44.1 27.0

Mean

4.5 4.8 9.7 11.9 4.8

SD

indulgent

TABLE 2 Means and Standard Deviations of Parenting Styles, Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Self-esteem, Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Life Satisfaction Variables

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Paternal parenting styles showed a main effect with memories of EA, F(3, 258) = 5.9, p < .001]. Post-hoc tests (Scheffe) revealed significant differences between groups of the paternal authoritative and authoritarian parenting style (d = 0.6, p < .001), as well as the paternal authoritarian and indulgent parenting style (d = 0.8, p < .001). No interaction among paternal parenting styles was found. Significant mean differences in life satisfaction were found among groups of maternal parenting styles, F(3, 258) = 13.3, p < .001, and paternal parenting styles, F(3, 258) = 15.0, p < .001. Post-hoc tests (Scheffe) revealed significant differences between maternal authoritative and negligent parenting style (d = .8, p < .001), authoritative and authoritarian parenting style (d = .8, p < .001), negligent and indulgent parenting style (d = .6, p < .001), and as well as authoritarian and indulgent parenting style (d = .7, p < .001). In the paternal parenting style, post-hoc tests (Scheffe) revealed significant differences between authoritative and negligent parenting style (d = .8, p < .001), authoritative and authoritarian parenting style (d = 1, p < .001), negligent and indulgent parenting style (d = .6, p < .01), and authoritarian and indulgent parenting style (d = .7, p < .006). Interactions were nonsignificant. In this study the internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) of the Parenting Styles scale was mother’s demandingness, .84; father’s demandingness, .87; mother’s responsiveness,.93; and father’s responsiveness, .94. To examine the relationships among the variables in the study, Pearson correlations are presented in Table 3. As can be seen, EA correlated negatively with self-esteem, positive affect, and life satisfaction and positively with age and negative affect. To evaluate differences between groups, t tests were run in memories of EA, positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction, and self-esteem regarding having been exposed to violence, holding a job or not, and being under psychological treatment or not. The participants who reported having been exposed to violence showed higher mean scores of negative affect (M =

TABLE 3 Pearson Correlation Coefficients among Age, Self-esteem, Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, and Life Satisfaction Variables (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) ∗

Age Emotional Abuse Self-Esteem Positive Affect Negative Affect Life Satisfaction

p < 0,01

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

– .16∗ −.03 .10 .04 −.22∗

– −.44∗ −.32∗ .41∗ −.47∗

– .56∗ −.60∗ .65∗

– −.40∗ .52∗

– −.52∗

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48.9, SD = 13.4) than those who did not report exposure to violence (M = 45.2, SD = 13.3, d = 0.3). This difference was significant, t(289) = 2.02, p < .05. The same participants also showed higher mean scores of EA (M = 21.3, SD = 7.9) than those who were not exposed to violence (M = 19.1, SD = 6.4, d = 0.3). This difference was also significant, t(76) = 2.20, p < .03. On the other hand, participants who reported having been exposed to violence showed lower self-esteem scores (M = 31.1, SD = 5.8) than those who were not exposed (M = 33.0, SD = 4.9, d = 0.4), t(84) = 2.3, p < .05. This result is in agreement with findings obtained in Korea (Jeon et al., 2009). EA was shown to be highly associated with suicidal behavior among medical students as well as a stronger risk factor for suicide than the stress caused by the academy itself (Jeon et al., 2009; Yates, 2007). Participants who were employed had higher mean scores of EA (M = 20.9, SD = 6.5) than those who were not (M = 19.9, SD = 6.1), t(277) = 2.2, p < .01, d = 0.2. They also showed lower scores in life satisfaction, t(290) = 3.6, p < .001. Differences in self-esteem and in negative affect were found when participants who underwent psychological treatment were compared with those who did not, t(290) = 2.3, p < .01, and t(290) = 2.6, p < .01, respectively. Participants who have never undergone psychological treatment had higher self-esteem scores (M = 33.0, SD = 4.9) than those who had (M = 31.6, SD = 5.3, d = 0.3). Those who received psychological treatment had higher scores in negative affect (M = 48.5, SD = 14.6) than those who did not (M = 44.3, SD = 12.3, d = 0.3).

DISCUSSION This study investigated the relationship among memories of EA, self-esteem, subjective well-being, and perceived parenting styles. Most of the results were in accordance with previous findings in the literature. This study is the first one developed in Brazil to establish a link among memories of EA, positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and parenting styles in a nonclinical sample. Although causation cannot be implied from correlational results, it was possible to observe a relation between parenting styles and memory of EA. The participants in this study who presented higher means of memory of EA reported having been under the care of mothers and fathers whose parenting styles were perceived as negligent. The same pattern was found regarding authoritarian mother and father parenting styles. These findings are in accordance with the literature about childhood EA that has been linked with, for example, parenting domination and control; that is, authoritarian parenting style in this study (Edwards & Alexander, 1992). Other findings show that EA is found where there is a lack of parenting support (Merrill, Thomsen, Sinclair, Gold, & Milner, 2001), regarded as the


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neglectful parenting style in this study, and in homes where parents are violent and neglectful (NeyTak, Adele, & Wickett, 1994; Peleikis, Mykletun, & Dahl, 2004), where there is poor attachment, and in troubled parent–child relationships (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001; Finzi, Ram, Har, Shnit, & Weizman, 2001; Higgins, McCabe, & Ricciardelli, 2003; Lynch & Cicchetti, 1991; Pacheco, Teixeira, & Gomes, 1999; Reppold & Hutz, 2003). On the other side, our findings showed that those who reported having been under the care of authoritative and indulgent parents showed the lowest means of memories of EA among the parenting styles. These patterns were expected and confirmed by other findings (Adalbjarnardottir & Hafsteinsson, 2001; Aunola, Sttatin, & Nurmi, 2000; Lamborn,Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbusch, 1991; Wolfradt, Hempel, & Miles, 2003). It was noted that self-esteem and EA are negatively correlated. The former result is consistent with previous empirical research describing the psychopathological connections EA can have with adults’ self-esteem (FinziDottan & Karu, 2006; Gross & Keller, 1992; Moor & Silvern, 2006; Yates, 2007). In keeping with findings from other studies (Baumrind, 1967, 1971; Maccoby & Martin, 1983) the results reported here indicate that the two more deleterious parenting styles, shown to be the authoritarian and negligent ones, have an association with adult psychological impairment in self-esteem (Egeland, 2009; Moor & Silvern, 2006). This study shows authoritarian mother and father parenting styles presented the highest mean scores of negative affect and the lowest mean scores in life satisfaction and positive affect. A high adaptation level and an empathic attunement to the child’s needs are translated into empathic responsiveness and facilitate psychological well-being and stable, enduring self-esteem (Kohut, 1977, 1984; Kohut & Wolf, 1978; Winnicott, 1986, 1988; Yates, 2007). The opposite appears to be true as well, as perceived parenting failure of empathic attunement and responsiveness (regarded in this study as neglectful and authoritarian parenting styles) leads to psychopathological outcomes (Egeland, 2009; Moor & Silvern, 2006). We deduced the negligent parenting style that prevailed in this study to be the most deleterious one, consistent with clinical descriptions of developmental and personality damage caused by parenting EA, as well as with empirical research describing severe psychopathological consequences in adult life (Egeland, 2009; Finzi-Dottan, & Karu, 2006; Garbarino et al., 1986; Hart et al., 2010). Neglectful parenting was in this study characterized by parents who lacked control over their children’s behavior, as well as deficiencies in addressing their needs and demonstrating affection. Pearson correlations revealed significant relations among the variables: age, self-esteem, positive affect, negative affect, EA, and life satisfaction. This study shows developmental links with other variables such as self-esteem, meaning the more memories the participants showed in their CTQ of EA, the lower were their scores of self-esteem, positive affect, and life satisfaction.

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These results corroborate international studies that provide findings that link the memory of EA and self-esteem (Finzi-Dottan & Karu, 2006; Garbarino, 1978; Myers, 2010; Shaffer, Yates, & Egeland, 2009). The correlations found between most variables suggest that it is possible to consider a trend, in the sense that people who reported having memories of EA showed higher scores of negative affect and lower scores of selfesteem, positive affect, and life satisfaction. In addition, participants who scored higher in life satisfaction showed higher scores of positive affect and self-esteem and lower scores of negative affect. Empirical studies that assess the correlation between EA and life satisfaction are scarce. In Korea there was a study that showed EA is highly associated with suicidal behavior among medical students. It proved to be a stronger risk factor for suicide than the stress caused by the academy itself (Jeon et al., 2009; Yates, 2007). Reinforcing the former results is the fact that it was possible to find, in our sample, that the memories of EA were positively associated with age, possibly suggesting that, as people grow older, they tend to have more memories of EA. It could be hypothesized that as these college students grow older and are less dependent on their caregivers, they allow the memory of emotionally abusive experiences, often repressed, to surface. We realize this is a small correlation, but it is relevant enough to be mentioned. Although we recognize that it is difficult to control for all other types of abuse and the focus of the article is EA, the fact remains that EA tends not to occur in isolation, and other types of abuse could be contributing to the relationships reported here. Our findings are also consistent with prior research demonstrating that the emotional invalidation that victims of child EA often experience strongly leads them to difficulties with adult adjustment. From the perspective of the attachment theory, children rely on their parents for help in regulating their arousal (Bowlby, 1982). However, when children’s parents are frequently emotionally abusive, their arousal level could be chronically heightened, leading to difficulties developing effective emotion regulation strategies (Yates, 2007). This finding was confirmed in this study, where the college students showed high scores of memory of EA as well as high scores of negative affect. On the other hand, it is important to acknowledge that they were able to succeed in school and start a college education. Not all children victimized by abuse report further problems (Caspi & Moffitt, 2006). We could hypothesize that some individuals are able to overcome their past and move forward. Additionally, it is important to consider the retrospective nature of the instruments used in this study. The retrospective memory of EA was assessed through the CTQ, and our participants were young adults from various age ranges. Thus, the answers they gave could have been biased by memory and


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could also represent the individual’s interpretation of his or her childhood life. As an example, the concept of parenting viewed through retrospective instruments has been shown to be influenced by many factors, including cultural concepts (Garbarino & Ebata, 1983; Seganfredo et al., 2009) about offspring upbringing, as well as temperamental aspects of the parents and child.

CONCLUSION This study has some limitations, including the retrospective nature of some of the instruments used to assess the memory of childhood experiences, which might limit the accuracy of some of the conclusions. This study has a retrospective design and the strength of using self-report instruments. Brewin, Andrews, and Gotlib (1991) stated that retrospective reports are subject to various limitations and researchers and clinicians must develop strategies to enhance their reliability. Obtaining accounts from other informants and structured investigative methods are recommended to minimize unrealistic demands on participants’ memory. Dill, Chu, Grob, and Eisen (1991), however, showed that self-report instruments, such as ours, to evaluate childhood trauma (and EA is regarded is such) are more likely to elicit truthful responses than clinical interviews. On the other hand, recent studies obtained through clinical interviews have shown that children who have gone through abusive experiences might have a negative internal working model of others in which adults are viewed as dangerous people who might hurt them (Kozanowski, 2007). Hence, within a clinical approach, establishing a good therapeutic alliance, if psychotherapy should be an option, and building a relationship based in trust, might be a difficult task for this child in the present, as well as in the future. For that matter, findings show that if the therapist has the tools to work with this subtle and silent pathology, he or she can be a source of strength, support, and a secure attachment base (Bowlby, 1988). Furthermore the therapist can become a new identification figure to help the patient manage more appropriately with daily events and manage situations that relate to separations and any related distress that might follow those (Kozanowski, 2007). Finally, practice and academy should embrace this issue, and hopefully the results found in this study will encourage further research in the field of abuse. Clinicians could benefit from research and improve interventions as well as diagnosis once they are more aware of the picture. The results reported here are correlational and, as such, do not imply causality. Also, perhaps qualitative and longitudinal research can address this issue more closely and further clarify the precise relation between the outcomes perceived following emotionally abusive (traumatizing) experiences

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in childhood and lack of positive affect and life satisfaction, as this research is the first in Brazil to address these links. The literature review led us to think that the topic of EA is extremely serious and relevant. Nevertheless, there has not been a broad empirical examination of this issue in Brazil, as well as its short- and long-term consequences. Having said this, it is important that more studies take place in Brazil to allow us to identify and extensively study EA and its pervasive consequences for human development. If this goal is achieved, new strategies can be created in the future to offer some sort of support to children and their families.

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