Experiences of Emotional Abuse and its Lingering Effects on Future Relationships
Experiences of Emotional Abuse and its Lingering Effects on Future Relationships
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Issue Date
2022-12
Authors
Tsonis, Tina
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Abstract
The experience of previous emotional abuse in childhood and early adulthood has the potential to create harmful effects on both the individual and their ability to form and maintain future healthy relationships. Emotional abuse can lead to struggles with trust, intimacy, and attachment, as well as impact general mental health challenges and difficulty in forming new, close relationships with other individuals. Previously, emotional abuse has been a term that has been widely under-acknowledged and under-recognized within Western society. More recently, scholarly research has begun to highlight the prevalence of emotional abuse and its impacts. A review of the literature demonstrates an evaluation of the conceptualization of intimate partner violence and betrayal trauma and how it relates to forming new close relationships. The purpose of this research is to examine to what degree an individual's past experiences of emotional abuse in childhood/adolescent years impact forming and maintaining close intimate relationships in adulthood. This paper assessed emotional abuse research in relation to its potential impact on individuals in terms of intimacy, trust, and related mental health disorders. Data showed that when safety and trust are compromised through experiences of emotional abuse perpetrated by an attachment figure–such as a parent or other close individual, their attachment style subsequently shifts away from a secure attachment and into an insecure attachment. The characteristics of an insecure attachment style can lead an individual to present challenges in forming and maintaining future healthy relationships. This paper further proposes a psychosocial educational approach to mitigate these impacts.
Description
Keywords
emotional abuse , trust , intimacy , attachment , mental health , Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder , close relationships
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess