Emotional abuse in childhood is linked to an increased risk for internalizing symptoms such as depression and anxiety in adulthood. Religious social support offers a promising defense in maintaining mental well-being in the face of trauma. This study aims to investigate if religious social support in childhood will moderate the impact of negative outcomes associated with emotional abuse. Further, this study will examine whether and how gender and ethnicity impact this relationship. The sample includes undergraduate students attending East Tennessee State University (ETSU), located in the southeastern United States (n = 554, 61% female, 11% Black, M age = 20.38 SD = 4.69). Participants completed an online survey that asked about childhood experiences (e.g., emotional abuse, emotion socialization, religious social support) as well as current mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression). Data was analyzed using Statistical Software for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Bivariate relations were examined through Pearson’s correlations and moderated moderation was tested via the Hayes Process Macro (version 3.0, Model 3). Results indicated that religious social support from childhood was negatively related to depression (r = -.23, p = .00) and anxiety (r = -.24, p = 00) whereas negative religious experiences from childhood were positively related to depression (r = .35, p = .00) and anxiety (r = .32, p = .00). Harsh emotional parenting from childhood was positively related to depression (r = .56, p = .00) and anxiety (r = .24, p = .00) in adulthood. Results did not find support for moderated moderation for predicting depression F[1, 360] = .25; ; R2 < .001; p = .62) or anxiety F[1, 360] = .31; R2 < .001; p = .58). Chi-squared indicated no significant differences in the percentage of individuals who endorsed childhood emotional abuse due to ethnicity, gender, or the interaction of ethnicity and gender. There are limitations to retrospective report of experiences from childhood. Future research would benefit from longitudinal designs that follow children across time to better understand whether and how religious social support may be a buffer for emotional abuse experienced in childhood.

Although the focus of the study was the emotional abuse of women in close relationship, I argue that the patterns and processes in the abusive relationship, the positioning of both players show a close resemblance to abuse and violence on a macro-political scale. When I as a psychotherapist was continuously confronted with an increasing number of female clients relating stories of emotional abuse in close personal relationships, I started questioning the historical context, culture, societal beliefs and time-frame that constructed women to be in such a position. World wide voices are heard questioning the constant abuse of the other, the weaker, the different, and the marginalized, and much has been written about physical abuse, but the question was as to how this macro-phenomenon informs upon the emotional life of the individual woman. When it comes to abuse in close relationships, the victim usually is the female and not the male partner, which makes abuse a woman’s problem. As a result, I was interested in the truths of the woman in the abusive relationship and approached this research from the position of the other and not the oppressor. Feminist standpoint theory formed the basis of my epistemological and methodological thinking. This I practically implemented in my choice of method and my approach to interpretation of the research information. I undertook a qualitative study, utilizing descriptive methods to represent the stories of women from emotionally abusive relationships. The research was historical and location-specific, and led to the description of what I termed the Traditional Afrikaans Family and a legitimizing ecology for emotional abuse against women in close relationships. The experiences collected tell about emotional abuse as relayed by more than forty women in therapy. The data formed the background for the reconstruction and representation of four case studies and a thematic analysis pertaining to the positioning of both partners in an emotionally abusive relationship. A critical deconstruction of the mechanisms of power, domination, and control are explained. In doing so, emerging patterns in the abusive relationship were noted and described. Of particular interest to psychotherapists will be the description and analysis of the process of emotional abuse as played out in close relationships. In conclusion, I argued that emotional abuse in close interpersonal relationships is constructed in the interactions between the partners and within a legitimising context that warrants the male to dominate. The abusive behaviour emerges as a result of the patriarchal male wanting to establish or re-establish his dominant position while the female partner attempts to position him as someone that respects her as a person in her own right. / Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Psychology / unrestricted

INTRODUCTION: Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem that affects all countries and cultures alike. Child maltreatment, which includes neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse, can result in negative consequences that are lifelong and irreversible. Previous studies have shown the prevalence of all forms of child abuse in India, which is also home to one fifth of the world’s children. However, adequate resources and efforts are not being made to understand the true scope of this problem. AIM: The present study utilized an existing measure, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), to understand how parents from the South Indian culture defined acceptable child rearing practices and physical and emotional child abuse. The items from the physical and emotional abuse subscales on the CTQ were also tested for validity and reliability. It was hypothesized that fathers would report higher scores on the physical abuse subscale and mothers would report higher scores on the emotional abuse subscale. It was also hypothesized that parents would find spanking to be an acceptable form of discipline and note that both child physical and emotional abuse are not prevalent in the South Indian community residing in the United States. METHODS: This study recruited 41 participants (21 mothers and 20 fathers) to complete the CTQ. Of the total number of participants, ten were randomly assigned to participate in an in-depth interview, which focused on how parents in the South Indian community in Georgia interpreted the items on the CTQ and how parents defined child physical and emotional abuse. Reliability and validity testing was conducted using data analysis software SPSS 23.0. Qualitative analysis of the interviews involved Consensual Qualitative Research, identifying common themes among all ten interviews. RESULTS: Quantitative analysis revealed low to moderate internal consistency for the emotional abuse scale (α = 0.65) and moderate to high internal consistency for the physical abuse scale (α = 0.88). Independent t-test results showed that fathers reported higher scores on both the physical and emotional abuse subscale; however, these results were not significant. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research method, six domains were determined from the interviews. These included: (a) parent perspectives on child rearing practices, (b) spanking as a discipline practice, (c) country differences between India and the United States regarding discipline, (d) prevalence of abuse among the South Indian community in the United States, (e) reporting child abuse, and (f) parents’ awareness of resources to develop parenting skills. A majority of participants reported spanking as an acceptable form of discipline and believed that neither child physical nor emotional abuse was prevalent in the South Indian community in the United States. CONCLUSION: This study serves as formative research and encourages further investigation of different forms of child abuse in Indian populations, specifically child physical and emotional abuse. Understanding how a culture views children and child rearing practices is important in determining how abuse is defined within said culture. Societies that are more lenient and accepting of violence in general are at a greater risk for perpetrating the maltreatment of children. Establishing a concise definition of child abuse will aid in the development of valid measures that will determine the actual scope of the problem and create solutions, such as laws and policies that will shift a society’s view on appropriate interactions with children.

This study aims to investigate if religious social support in childhood will moderate the impact of negative outcomes associated with emotional abuse. Further, this study will examine whether and how gender and ethnicity impact this relationship. The sample includes undergraduate students attending East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Participants completed an on line survey that asked about childhood experiences (e.g., emotional abuse, emotion socialization, religious social support) as well as current mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression).

The power of abuse, either in childhood or in adulthood, is clear in many cases. Yet certain types of abuse are harder to detect and understand. Emotional invalidation is one type of abuse that is characterized by an incongruence or minimization of another person's emotions. This experimental study explored effects of emotional invalidation and emotional validation on people's level of emotional self-efficacy. Participants (n = 230) were recruited through Quest Mindshare using a survey created through SurveyMonkey, and randomly placed into 3 groups. All participants were given a survey that asked them to choose how certain pictures made them feel. In the experimental groups, experimenter feedback was either validating or invalidating. Following the survey, a measure of emotional self-efficacy was measured through the Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES). An ANCOVA research design was used in order to determine if differences in participant's ESES scores existed between the 3 groups, while controlling for age. The results revealed that the group receiving the invalidating feedback scored significantly lower than did the control group on the ESES score. This finding supports previous research completed with emotional invalidation and involves an aspect of communication that pertains to many different settings and interpersonal relationships including, but not limited to, teachers and students, family members, and friends. This study also has positive social change implications in the mental health field by illuminating the role of invalidating feedback on emotional self-efficacy, a finding which may inform clinicians' work to bolster mental health in all individuals.

Emotional invalidation is a construct closely related to childhood maltreatment, which has been linked theoretically and empirically to the development of psychopathology. This study sought to advance the empirical investigation into emotional invalidation through three primary objectives: 1) to critically review the way emotional invalidation is currently defined and measured in the existing literature, 2) to offer a novel approach at conceptualizing and measuring emotional invalidation as a two part construct comprised of emotionally invalidating behaviors and perceived emotional invalidation, and 3) to experimentally test the effects of invalidating behaviors on a person's perception of emotional invalidation and their level of emotional distress. Results suggest that the invalidation paradigm created for this study did lead participants in this condition to report higher levels of perceived emotional invalidation compared to participants in the neutral condition; however, they did not report higher levels of emotional distress. Potential moderation was examined for participants' levels of borderline personality features and childhood maltreatment based on the theoretical relationships among emotional invalidation and these constructs. Unexpectedly, participants' borderline personality features and childhood maltreatment histories did not individually contribute unique variance in the prediction of emotional distress, but together did predict higher levels of emotional distress. In regards to the perception of emotional invalidation, neither borderline personality features or childhood maltreatment were found to be significant predictors. The need exists for continued research in this area as many questions remain unanswered, and the implications for determining what makes some types of emotional invalidation harmful are significant.

This study focused on the emotional abuse suffered by victims, who were professional women, within a marriage or a cohabitating relationship. Researcher made use of various sources to obtain data concerning the phenomenon of emotional abuse and its context within domestic violence. Several components of various theoretical perspectives were utilised to design an explanatory model, the Interactional model of the process of victimisation by an emotionally abusive partner, to direct the research and to interpret the data. Researcher made use of non-probability sampling strategy. All respondents were selected by means of the snowball and purposive sampling methods. The sample consisted of 11 professional women who came from professions that belong to a governing body, such as medical doctors, dentists, psychologists, attorneys, teachers and a veterinarian. The sample consisted of women of various age groups who were in abusive relationships for periods ranging from five to 27 years, therefore providing a wide range within the research sample. Researcher did case analyses of the different backgrounds of both the victims and their abusers, made possible from information obtained from the respondents during in-depth interviews. This was done in order to reach a holistic understanding of the dynamics within these relationships and the victimisation process throughout the duration of these relationships. Against this background, researcher was better able to analyse and interpret the data obtained from the respondents, with the use of the Interactional model of the process of victimisation by an emotionally abusive partner, and various other authors. A rich and insightful understanding of the phenomenon of emotional abuse within the lives of these professional women was reached. The research concludes with a number of recommendations for the healing process of the victims of emotional abuse and recommendations for further research. Researcher also makes several conclusions based on findings from the interviews conducted with respondents in this study. / Dissertation (MA (Criminology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

This study aims to explore the experiences and coping mechanisms of black middle class women who remain in abusive marital relationships. The study also aimed to explore the reasons black women attach towards remaining in marital abusive relationships. Even though our current democratic Government has put efforts towards fighting against domestic abuse, South Africa is still characterised by high rates of domestic abuse. In South Africa a woman has about one in three chances of being violated in her life time, which puts it amongst the highest statistics of violence in the world, with one in six women standing a chance of being abused by her intimate partner in her lifetime (People Opposing Women Abuse, 2005). Domestic abuse does not just involve minor forms of physical assault, but, frequently, serious injury and even death. According to statistics from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation at Wits University, one woman is murdered by her partner every six days in the Gauteng province in South Africa. Qualitative approach, as well as literature review and in-depth interviews have been used in order to study the experiences of abused women in the Mpumalanga province at KwaMhlanga. The theoretical approach used was (i) Social Learning Theories which focused on the mechanisms whereby family members influences each other through modelling, reinforcement and coercion to behave violently, (ii) The feminist theory in which the origins of abuse included stereotyping and patriarchal values, (iii) the General Systems Theory which demonstrates that abuse cannot be explained by focusing on an individual level, but rather that systems interact and as they interact, they influence the reaction of others. General System’s theory was used as the backdrop of the study because it provided a broader understanding of how abuse occurs within a family system and hence allowed the researcher to explore the experiences and coping mechanisms of women who remain in abusive marital relationships. Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants. The criteria included that the participants were currently in abusive marital relationships and had at least a tertiary qualification and were employed in middle management job position. Nine participants were interviewed using individual in depth interviews. The interviews were audio recorded and field notes were taken. Data was analysed qualitatively. Five broad categories formed a framework for the analysis. (i) The Experiences of abused women, (ii) the Impact of remaining in an abusive relationship, (iii) the Meaning attached to staying, (iv) the Coping mechanisms used by abused women, (v) and Social support. The themes were coded in form of numbers, counting the number of times the theme occurs in an interview, data was collected until a level of saturation was reached. The themes were then compared and integrated with the literature. The study concludes that abuse occurs in all social groups and that a complexity of factors contribute towards black middle class women resorting to remaining in marital abusive relationships, for example, culture and societal beliefs and structures, personality factors, and lack of support. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

A positive sibling relationship may protect individuals against poor developmental outcomes associated with psychological maltreatment. The current study assessed the moderating role of a positive sibling relationship in childhood and adulthood on associations between early psychological maltreatment and adult attachment anxiety and avoidance. College students (N = 270) completed self-report measures of psychological maltreatment, sibling relationship quality, and adult attachment. Psychological maltreatment in childhood was associated with an increase in attachment anxiety and avoidance, while a positive sibling relationship was related to a decrease in levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance. As predicted, a positive childhood sibling relationship mitigated the negative effects of psychological neglect in childhood on attachment. Similarly, a positive sibling relationship decreased the levels of attachment anxiety associated with isolation in childhood.

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