Childhood Emotional Trauma and Flourishing in Female College Students

Abstract

There are few studies that measure the effects of childhood emotional trauma on female college students’ positive perceptions and attitudes toward their present lives. Therefore, this study analyzes how female college students’ emotional trauma induced by child emotional abuse influences their flourishing as adults. To this end, a descriptive survey via an online platform was conducted from November 26 to December 3, 2022. The participants were 318 female college students aged 18 to 35 in South Korea, who experienced parental emotional abuse when they were younger than 18 years old. The survey was conducted to validate the moderating effects of resilience and cognitive emotion regulation strategies on the relationship between female college students’ childhood emotional trauma and flourishing. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and Hayes’ PROCESS macro. Self-blame, other-blame, and positive refocusing factors of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were found to moderate the relationship between childhood emotional trauma and flourishing. Specifically, the self-blame strategy intensified the negative moderation effect. As flourishing depends on the degree of self-blame, fostering optimism by mitigating self-blame is necessary. The other-blame strategy attenuated the negative impact of childhood emotional trauma on flourishing. Nevertheless, this strategy can weaken emotions if individuals fail to regulate them independently. A positive refocusing strategy also effectively moderated the relationship between childhood emotional trauma and flourishing by alleviating the former’s adverse effects. By contrast, resilience lacked a moderation effect. To overcome past emotional adversities and lead a flourishing life, interventions that actively utilize relational resources within the campus and regulate irrational beliefs, such as self-blame and blame toward others are necessary. These findings provide critical foundational data for the development of programs aimed at fostering a forward-thinking cognitive framework, thus enabling them to focus on future plans despite memories of emotional abuse.