Associations Between Guilt, Shame, and Psychopathology Among Women with History of Childhood Emotional Abuse

Abstract

While understudied compared to other forms of childhood abuse, emotional abuse has been identified as a potentially strong, unique predictor of psychopathology. Guilt and shame may represent important factors in the path from childhood abuse to adult psychopathology. The current study examined the impact of childhood emotional abuse (CEA) on explicit and implicit measures of guilt and shame, as well as psychopathology. Participants in this study were 188 undergraduate women (Mage = 19.15, 47.6% White) at a large Midwestern university. Participants completed online self-report measures of childhood abuse, depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and experiences of guilt/shame. Additionally, participants completed Implicit Association Tests (IATs) assessing guilt- and shame-prone self-concept in an online format. Path analysis using IATs found CEA did not predict guilt-proneness (β = 0.064, p = .377) or shame-proneness (β = 0.124, p = .087). However, when using self-report measures, CEA predicted shame (β = .392, p < .001) and guilt (β = 0.352, p < .001). Across both path analyses, CEA significantly predicted symptoms of psychopathology. Results suggest potentially important distinctions between implicit and explicit measures of guilt and shame, given the discrepancies in significance between the two models tested. Further research is needed to understand the nuanced role of these experiences in the development and maintenance of psychopathology. However, given the associations demonstrated with self-report measures, guilt and shame represent potentially important treatment targets for individuals who have experienced CEA. Additionally, results add to the burgeoning literature identifying CEA as an important independent predictor of psychopathology.