The Relationship of Childhood Emotional Abuse and Neglect to Depressive Vulnerability and Low Self–Efficacy

Abstract

We examined associations between self–reported childhood maltreatment and depressive risk (sociotropy, autonomy, and self–criticism), and resilience (self–efficacy). Students (N = 203) reported childhood emotional abuse (CEA), emotional neglect (CEN), psychological distress, cognitive vulnerability, and resilience. CEA and CEN constitute separate predictors for cognitive risk and resilience, respectively: CEA was related to heightened depressive vulnerability and CEN was related to lower levels of resilience. The presence of negative parent–child interactions might contribute to the development of rigid and dysfunctional negative self–schemas, whereas the lack of positive parent–child interactions might prevent the construction of positive beliefs about the self and thus the formation of psychological resilience (or positive self–schemas).