You Hurt Me, so I Hurt Myself and Others: How Does Childhood Emotional Maltreatment Affect Adolescent Violent Behavior and Suicidal Ideation?

Abstract

Violent behavior and suicidal ideation are two major public health problems, with the former representing outward attack and the latter characterizing inward attack. The effects of emotional maltreatment in childhood will continue into adolescence. This study explores the impact of childhood emotional maltreatment on adolescent violent behavior/suicidal ideation and its mechanism. Participants were 3,600 adolescents (average age is 16.21 ± 0.99) from the middle east of China. They completed questionnaires measuring emotional maltreatment in childhood, deviant peer affiliation, depression, violent behavior, and suicidal ideation in adolescence. After controlling for demographic variables, we found that deviant peer affiliation and depression mediated between childhood emotional maltreatment and adolescent violent behavior/suicidal ideation. Multi-group analysis results showed that males’ deviant peer affiliation would contribute to their violent behaviors. Among female groups, deviant peer affiliation and depression were risk factors for violent behavior and suicidal ideation. a) cross-sectional design was used in this study; b) all the measures were self-reported. Preventing emotional maltreatment in childhood can help reduce violent behavior and suicidal ideation by reducing deviant peer affiliation and depression in adolescence. Males who experienced emotional maltreatment in childhood are more likely to show violent behaviors shaped by external factors such as deviant peer affiliation. In contrast, females’ interpersonal orientation and internalizing factors both influence their external and internal aggressive behaviors.

How Does Childhood Emotional Maltreatment Affect the Development Trajectory of Adolescent Problem Behaviors? The Mediating Role of Self-compassion

“…All items were rated on a 5-point scale (1 = not true at all, 5 = always true). It has been proved to have high reliability and validity in Chinese samples [9]. In this study, the Cronbach's alpha for the questionnaire was 0.89.…”

“…The short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire [43] is a 28item self-report scale, which includes ve dimensions (emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, physical neglect, and sexual abuse). In the present study, the total score of emotional maltreatment was the sum of emotional neglect and abuse subscales and it has been proved to have high reliability and validity in Chinese samples [9]. All items were rated on a 5-point scale (1 = not true at all, 5 = always true).…”

“…Even after individuals have survived the trauma, psychological schema about the traumatic experience may continue to hurt them [18]. In order to mitigate their constant painful experience and negative beliefs, many adolescents who have experienced emotional maltreatment in childhood exhibit maladjustment [21], which increases their risk of problem behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, abnormal peer relationships, violent behavior, suicide, and so on [9,22]. Studies have found that childhood maltreatment signi cantly predicted the development trajectory of children's problem behaviors over time [23].…”

“…The experience of maltreatment during childhood may be more destructive, which may have more harmful effects on individual [14]. The effect of childhood emotional maltreatment that is a kind of early maltreatment with high incidence, wide range, and strong destructive force [8,9] on problem behaviors is signi cantly higher than other maltreatment types [10,15,16]. Childhood emotional maltreatment is described as repetitive patterns or extreme events in which caregivers disrupt the children's basic psychological developmental need, such as parents' verbal abuse and emotional neglect, it may lead to individual's maladjustment in cognitive, emotional, and behavior [9,17,18].…”

“…According to the problem behavior theory and the social psychological model of problem behaviors, adolescent problem behaviors that affected by both external environmental factors (e.g., family) and internal psychological factors (e.g., psychological quality) are unstable and dynamic trend of development [5][6][7]. As a risk factor with a high incidence and easy to be neglected [8,9], childhood emotional maltreatment may create an indifferent and neglectful family environment for individuals, which may affect the generation and development of adolescent problem behaviors [10]. However, studies have shown that self-compassion, as a positive psychological quality, is closely associated with individual's physical and psychology health development that including higher levels of positive emotion, good adaptability [11,12], and lower levels of bad behavior [13].…”