Abstract
1. Background. There is a recent surge of interest in studying emotional maltreatment and in identifying its adult psychological sequelae. A study by Kent and Waller (1998) found scores on a child emotional abuse scale to correlate positively with depression and anxiety scores in a non-clinical sample, therefore implying a relationship between emotional abuse and anxious and depressive symptomatology. The current study aims to replicate Kent and Waller’s findings in a clinical sample and to investigate the effects of variations in the severity o f depression upon adult recollections of childhood emotional abuse. 2. Method. A sample of 56 adult women (18 to 65 years of age) took part in this cross-sectional longitudinal study. The sample consisted of two matched groups (n = 28 each) of clinically depressed psychiatric outpatients and non-depressed controls. At the first interview, all participants completed the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories and the revised Child Abuse and Trauma scale. 68% of the initial sample attended a follow-up interview and completed the same three measures. 3. Results. 68% of the clinical group and 25 % of the comparison group reported a history of emotional abuse. The clinical group scored significantly higher than the comparison group on the emotional abuse scale and significant positive correlations were found between mood (depression and anxiety) and emotional abuse scores in both groups. This suggests that people who are clinically depressed report a higher frequency of childhood emotional abuse and that there is a strong relationship between childhood emotional abuse and adult depression. At follow-up, there was no difference in both groups’ scores on the emotional abuse scale, even though the clinical group’s depression and anxiety seemed to have remitted. This suggested that adult recollections of childhood emotional abuse are reliable and that they are not affected by fluctuations in the severity of anxiety and depression symptomatology. 4. Conclusions. This study replicated and extended Kent and Waller’s findings. It highlighted the association between a history of emotional abuse and depression - both clinical and non-clinical. It also investigated the effects of mood variation on recollections of childhood maltreatment. Limitations of the study as well as recommendations for future research were discussed.