Emotional Invalidation Research Articles

Features of borderline personality disorder, perceived childhood emotional invalidation, and dysfunction within current romantic relationships.

The mechanisms through which current romantic relationship dysfunction develops in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms are still unclear. One possible pathway may be childhood experiences of emotional invalidation by parents, which may result in the development of poor social problem-solving skills or cognitive responses such as splitting, which impair current romantic relationships. This study examines the relationship between features of BPD and current romantic relationship dysfunction, and demonstrates that perceived emotional invalidation by parents during childhood mediates the relationship between BPD features and current romantic relationship dysfunction. Structural equations modeling was used to test the hypothesized model in 758 young adults in an ethnically diverse community sample. The proposed model fit the data well; perceived childhood emotional invalidation partially mediated the relationship between features of BPD and romantic relationship dysfunction, even when controlling for the presence of a major depressive episode in the last year. The findings of this study suggest that individuals with features of BPD experience relationship dysfunction that cannot be accounted for by comorbid depression and that perceived childhood emotional invalidation may contribute to these problems.

The Role of Emotional Abuse in the Eating Disorders: Implications for Treatment

This paper addresses the clinical links between emotional abuse and the eating disorders. It is argued that the core feature of a range of abusive experiences is emotional invalidation. Emotional abuse is associated with problems in the development of emotional skills, manifesting as alexithymia, poor distress tolerance, and emotional inhibition. Cognitive-behavioral approaches are outlined for work with eating-disordered patients with a history of emotional abuse. As well as addressing the central concerns about eating, weight, and shape (using existing evidence-based methods), the focus of treatment is on addressing the conditional assumptions about the acceptability of emotions and the core beliefs that underpin the emotional difficulties.

Childhood emotional invalidation and adult psychological distress: the mediating role of emotional inhibition

Objective: To evaluate a model in which chronic emotional inhibition mediates the relationship between a history of childhood emotional invalidation or abuse and adult psychological distress. Method: One hundred and twenty-seven participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires, and a subset of this group ( n=88) completed an additional measure of current avoidant coping in response to a laboratory stressor. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate and compare a full and partial mediational model. Results: Findings strongly supported a model in which a history of childhood emotional invalidation (i.e., psychological abuse and parental punishment, minimization, and distress in response to negative emotion) was associated with chronic emotional inhibition in adulthood (i.e., ambivalence over emotional expression, thought suppression, and avoidant stress responses). In turn, emotional inhibition significantly predicted psychological distress, including depression and anxiety symptoms. Conclusion: This study found support for a model in which the relation between recollected negative emotion socialization in childhood and adult psychological distress was fully mediated by a style of inhibiting emotional experience and expression. Although it is likely that childhood emotional inhibition is functional (e.g., reduces parental distress and rejection), results suggest that chronic emotional inhibition may have long-term negative consequences for the inhibitor.