Exploring psychological abuse in childhood: I. Developing a new interview scale

Abstract

Definitions of psychological abuse are reviewed and a new definition proposed, operationalized as an extension of an existing measure of childhood, the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA). This semistructured, investigator-based interview is designed for use with adults to collect retrospective accounts of childhood adverse experience. The CECA extension identifies nine subtypes of psychological abuse, with a single global severity rating. The definition is clearly differentiated from other adverse experiences with emotionally abusive elements such as parental antipathy (hostile parenting), neglect, and role reversal. Examples are given. A community-based series of 301 women were interviewed using the extended CECA to gather a range of experiences of childhood maltreatment on which to devise the new measure. Interrater reliability was satisfactory, and several features of psychological abuse were examined, including its prevalence, frequency, and the characteristics of the abused child and perpetrator. The new scale is discussed in terms of its potential use not only by researchers but also by practitioners such as clinicians and social workers in the child protection field in order to more accurately identify and assess multiples of abuse in childhood. A companion article (Bifulco, Moran, Baines, Bunn, & Stanford, 2002) examines the relationship of psychological abuse to adult major depression.

Unique and Combined Contributions of Multiple Child Abuse Types and Abuse Severity to Adult Trauma Symptomatology

“…Despite using a well-validated maltreatment history measure, it is possible that participants' recall of early maltreatment experiences may have been distorted by the passage of time. Relatedly, although the one standard deviation threshold used to identify victims of psychological maltreatment and neglect produced rates of abuse similar to other studies (e.g., Moran et al, 2002;Straus & Savage, 2005), the nature of these abuse types makes the establishment a fi rm cutoff somewhat subjective. In the future, efforts could be made to corroborate retrospective reports with other sources of information (sibling reports, offi cial records) or to follow participants longitudinally from the time of abuse into adulthood.…”

A (in)visibilidade da violência psicológica na infância e adolescência no contexto familiar

“…Nos 51 estudos epidemiológicos encontrouse que 14 destes (27,5%) são exclusivos com amostra do sexo feminino 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27 . Em relação à idade dos entrevistados, 35 artigos (68,6%) utilizaram como amostra de pesquisa a faixa etária dos adultos e 16 artigos (31,4%), adolescentes e crianças 10,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41 .…”

“…Em relação aos objetivos destes artigos analisados, encontrou-se que 18 destes (35,3%) investigaram a exposição à violência psicológica na infância correlacionando-a a diversas variáveis, que demonstraram a associação dessa exposição com repercussões na saúde mental (ansiedade, depressão e tentativa de suicídio) e com repercussões na saúde física (distúrbios alimentares e a obesidade) 12,13,14,15,16,19,20,23,26,29,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49 .…”

“…Esses artigos indicam também a associação com problemas de saúde mental 28,29,34 , sinalizando a possibilidade de futuros impactos na vida adulta. Neste sentido, a comparação com os 35 estudos epidemiológicos retrospectivos corroboram isso, já que estes demonstraram a ocorrência de efeitos em longo prazo na saúde de quem sofreu violência psicológica na infância no contexto familiar 12,13,14,15,16,19,20,23,26,29,43,44,45,46,47,48,49 . Este fato reforça a importância desses estudos de prevalência para o planejamento de ações e administração de serviços de saúde, bem como para a elaboração de políticas, e para a saúde pública.…”

Duygusal İhmal, İsti̇smar Ve Çocuk Heki̇mi̇ni̇n Rolü / Emotional Abuse, Neglect and the Role of Pediatrician

“…Çocuk bakım verenin dışında başkası tarafından duygusal istismara uğramış olabilir. (akraba, koç, çocuğun üzerinde otoritesi olan bir erişkin) (36)(37)(38)(39). Duygusal istismarda kız ve erkek çocuklar arasında sıklıkta önemli bir fark yoktur.…”