Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Child Maltreatment And Adult Resilience: A Process Model Involving Self-Esteem And Self-Compassion (#831)

Qinglu WU 1 , Peilian CHI 2
  1. Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Macau, China
  2. Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Macau, China

Child maltreatment, including child abuse and neglect, is negatively associated with resilience in adulthood. However, the mechanism and the specific pathways in the relationship are underexplored. Guided by attachment theory and emotion regulation theory, we examined the roles of self-esteem and self-compassion in the association between child maltreatment and adult resilience with 358 Chinese college students (226 women and 132 men). Results displayed that psychological maltreatment (emotional abuse and emotional neglect) was negatively associated with resilience through reduced self-esteemand self-compassion while other types of maltreatment (physical maltreatment and sexual abuse) were controlled (emotional abuse→ self-esteem→ resilience; emotional abuse→ self-esteem→ self-compassion→ resilience; emotional neglect→ self-esteem→ resilience; emotional neglect → self-esteem→ self-compassion→ resilience). Moreover, self-esteem was associated with resilience through self-compassion.Our findings highlight the importance of early caregiving experiences on self-concepts and emotion regulation on the positive adaption in dealing with adversities. The results lend evidence to the existing compassion-based intervention and treatment for people who experienced child maltreatment and other traumatic life events.