Emerging adult college students' descriptions of exposure to childhood emotional abuse and associated factors: A qualitative exploration

Abstract

BackgroundGrowing evidence on the long-term deleterious impacts of emotional abuse highlights the need to further understand childhood emotional abuse and its context to strengthen prevention efforts. ObjectiveTo describe emerging adults' experiences of emotional abuse in their childhoods and the household context surrounding that abuse. Participants and settingFifty-eight interviews were conducted with emerging adults, ages 18–25, recruited from four 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education. MethodsThematic analysis was conducted to identify and describe patterns in the data. A cyclical approach to codebook development and data analysis was followed by a team of four coders. ResultsThemes related to participants' experiences of emotional abuse included: inability to meet parent expectations; parent attacks on the child's character; parent negative comparisons to siblings and others; parent invalidation of the child's emotions and mental health needs; and evolution over time in the parent-child relationship. Aspects of childhood family environments contemporaneous with the childhood emotional abuse included: financial stress; parent mental illness; parent divorce, separation, or volatile relationship; parent adversity or trauma; physical abuse; and young parent age. Many participants identified these aspects of their family environment, most of which could potentially be improved with sufficient support, as playing causal roles in the emotional abuse they experienced. ConclusionThis descriptive qualitative study provides additional insight into child emotional abuse and its associated factors, providing invaluable insights that can enhance current measurement and intervention approaches.