The Relationship between Childhood Emotional Abuse and Maladaptive Parenting Practices

Background and Purpose: A substantial body of research has demonstrated that the experience of child maltreatment leads to an increased risk of subsequent negative or abusive parenting behaviors. However, relatively few studies have specifically focused on the intergenerational transmission of childhood emotional abuse. Prior research is also limited by failing to control for parents’ exposure to other types of abuse when examining the role of childhood emotional abuse in the transmission of maladaptive parenting behaviors. In addition, research that includes an examination of important contextual factors, such as parental substance misuse is scarce. To address these gaps, this study examines the relationship between parental emotional abuse in childhood and the use of psychological aggression and supervisory neglect with their own children in the context of problem drinking, while controlling for parental childhood exposure to other types of abuse.

Methods: Data were obtained from a second wave of a cross-sectional telephone and web survey of parents originally living in 30 cities in California with population sizes between 50,000 and 500,000 (N=738). Our outcome measures were the use of psychological aggression and supervisory neglect by parents. Our primary independent measures were parental exposure to emotional abuse in childhood and drinking frequency. Negative binomial regression models were used with counts of the number of times parents used 1) psychological aggression and 2) supervisory neglect while controlling for parental exposure to physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional neglect in childhood in addition to household and demographic factors.

Results: Parents were 41 years old on average, largely female (74.0%) and White (79.0%), and 44% experienced childhood emotional abuse. Experiencing emotional abuse in childhood was associated with a 44% increase in the use of psychologically aggressive parenting (IRR=1.44; 95% CI [1.13, 1.84]). Having at least one drink a month was associated with a 32% increase in psychologically aggressive parenting (IRR=1.32; 95% CI [1.001, 1.75]) while having at least one drink a year was associated with a 38% increase (IRR=1.38, 95% CI [1.02, 1.88]). A history of child emotional abuse was associated with a 215% increase in supervisory neglect (IRR=3.15; 95% CI [1.27, 7.79]), however drinking frequency was not significantly associated with supervisory neglect.

Conclusion and Implications: The results of this study point to transgenerational transmission of emotional abuse, manifested in increased use of psychological aggression and supervisory neglect. Despite awareness that abusive and neglectful childhood experiences negatively impact adult relationships, few investigations consider the impact of such experiences on subsequent parenting. Even fewer still examine the negative effects of child emotional abuse above and beyond experiences of child physical and sexual abuse. Our findings demonstrate that parental childhood emotional abuse uniquely increases risk of psychological aggression and supervisory neglect. Results further indicate frequent drinking as a risk factor for psychologically aggressive parenting but not for supervisory neglect. Future studies should explore factors that may mediate the associations between parents’ own emotional abuse and maladaptive parenting. Interventions aimed at improving parenting should probe and address experiences of childhood emotional abuse.