An aim of this research was to gain prevalence rates of emotional abuse (EA) and emotional neglect (EN) in a community based adolescent sample. This exploratory research also attempted to determine the impact of EA, EN and a combination of the two (emotional maltreatment; EM) on adolescent’s emotion regulation (ER). The impact of temperament, gender and age was also considered, along with the adolescent’s subsequent quality of life ratings. Method: A total of 540 adolescents (mean age 14 years) were recruited through their secondary schools, and completed the following questionnaires: the EN and EA subtests of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Fink, 1994); the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire – Short Form (EATQ – SF; Ellis & Rothbart, 1999); the Basic Emotions Scale (BES; Power, 2006); the Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire (REQ; Phillips & Power, 2007) and the Kid Screen -10 item Health Questionnaire for Children and Young People (Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2005). Results: Prevalence rates of EA and EN were reported. Differences were detected between EA and EN in terms of how they affect experiences of basic emotions and how they impact on ER, even after controlling for temperament. Only EA was associated with aggression, whereas both EA and EN were associated with depressive mood and reduced quality of life. Conclusions: EA and EN are different maltreatment experiences which have different detrimental effects on the individual, therefore requiring different interventions.

Background: The long-term detrimental impact of childhood emotional maltreatment is being increasingly recognised in the empirical literature. Adulthood trait-aggression is one proposed outcome of childhood emotional maltreatment. However, the pathways by which emotional maltreatment leads to trait-aggression are not well understood. Method: A systematic review was conducted to appraise the current empirical evidence base regarding the relationship between childhood emotional maltreatment and adulthood trait-aggression. Eighteen studies were reviewed and their quality analysed based on a number of pre-defined criteria. An empirical study was conducted using a cross-sectional, survey based design to evaluate hostile attribution bias and emotion regulation difficulties as mediators between childhood emotional maltreatment and adulthood trait-aggression. Participants were men (N = 42) recruited from NHS Forensic Mental Health Services. Results: Results from the systematic review provided support for a positive and significant association between childhood emotional abuse and adulthood traitaggression. There was evidence to indicate that childhood emotional neglect was also positively associated with adulthood trait-aggression, however, only a small number of studies have examined this relationship. The empirical study found significant indirect effects of childhood emotional abuse on self-reported aggression through emotion regulation difficulties. Emotion regulation difficulties did not have a significant effect on the relationship between childhood emotional neglect and aggression. Hostile attribution bias was not found to significantly mediate the relationship between either emotional abuse and aggression or emotional neglect and aggression. Conclusion: Those who experience emotional maltreatment during childhood may be at increased likelihood of engaging in aggressive behaviour in adulthood. Emotion regulation difficulties may play a key role in the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and aggression and this should be taken into consideration when assessing and treating adults who have difficulties with aggression. The routes by which emotional neglect and emotional abuse lead to aggression may differ. Further research is required to better understand the processes which lead from emotional maltreatment to aggression, particularly with regards to emotional neglect.

Childhood emotional maltreatment is associated with damaging consequences, although relatively little is known about the mechanisms underlying its effects. This dissertation investigated the concurrent influences of adult attachment and mindfulness on internalizing symptoms and emotional processing in young adults with and without a history of emotional maltreatment. Study 1 revealed that a sequential mediation model, with adult attachment orientations as first-step mediators and mindfulness as a second-step mediator, fit the data better than a simultaneous mediation model. In addition, moderation analyses revealed that high self-reported levels of mindfulness protected against the development of internalizing symptoms, even in at-risk individuals. Study 2 replicated these findings in a new sample, while also extending the results beyond a self-report outcome, using behavioural measures of emotional processing. Emotional maltreatment, adult attachment, and mindfulness predicted the amount of perceptual information required to correctly identify fearful faces and the amount of interference demonstrated in response to positive and negative emotional words. Cumulatively, these findings suggest that childhood emotional maltreatment can disrupt attachment relationships and encumber the development of mindfulness, contributing to internalizing symptoms and the biased processing of emotional information. However, alternative outcomes are possible, given the presence of high levels of mindfulness and secure attachment representations. This has implications for clarifying developmental theories and evaluating clinical interventions that may mitigate the negative effects of childhood emotional maltreatment.

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