Products of childhood emotional abuse -- adult depression
Oct 29, 2012
Previously, on my site, and in these posts, I have spoken about the products of childhood emotional abuse (recall the important studies of van Harmelen such as [LINK] and [LINK]. In today's post, I wish to provide access to another study, by Castilho and colleagues from Portugal [LINK] -- the Europeans really seem to be leading the race in this important area!
In the Castilho et al study recall of personal feelings of perceived threat and subordination in childhood were investigated in relation to psychopathology. In addition, the researchers also looked at the mediator role of self-criticism in this association. A sample of 193 subjects from the general population completed self-report questionnaires measuring the study variables. The mediator analyses suggested that the impact of submissiveness experiences in childhood on depression and anxiety is mediated by self-criticism. The findings highlight the route through which the recall of personal feelings of perceived involuntary subordination to parents contributes to depression and anxiety in adulthood. These results "feel right" to me, lookinng back at my own life experiences, and in this regard (being raised by an aunt who resented my presence) I would imagine that children the product of "broken homes", where a "caregiver" becomes responsible for children with whom healthy attachments were not formed earlier in life, would be especially vulnerable to such negative effects.
To qyote the study authors' practitioners' message:
- Although the relation betweenearly experiences of abuse and later psychological problems is now well established, there has been less study on subtler forms of threat and subordinate behaviour in childhood. Given ours and previous findings, therapists should be aware of, and prone to explore, these early experiences.
- Most studies exploring early negative experiencesmainly refer to attachment theory-related constructs (e.g., attachment style). We also highlight the importance of noting rank structure and rank style in the family.
- Self-criticism seems to be a key process in the relation between early aversive experiences of subordin-ation and psychopathology.
- Given the idea that self-reassuring operates through a different affect system, helping people develop inner warmth and compassion for the self may be important to counteract feelings of self-hatred and self-attack.
Unfortunately, whereas my earlier proposed research (see my website for my PhD proposal) was not able to look into possible clinical, defusion-related, de-stigmatization, interventions relevant to this model of causation, we must look elsewhere for possible clinical interventions; In this regard, the mindfulness interventions spoken of by Jack Kornfield in his forthcoming presentation for the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine will be particularly useful -- stay tuned for my posting of the presentation here [LINK] The presentation should be posted by midnight, Wednesday, October 31st EDT USA