Background

The detrimental role of childhood emotional neglect (CEN) on long-term affective and social development has received increasing attention in the literature. Individuals who were emotionally neglected during their childhood are more prone to feeling isolated and excluded by their parent during adolescence. However, little is known about the mediating processes underlying this association.

Objective

This study investigated whether self–other differentiation (SOD) and emotional detachment from parents mediate the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness.

Method and participants

A sample of 535 high school students aged 13–18 years (63.6% female; M_age = 16.21; SD = 1.40) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, CEN, SOD, emotional detachment, and parent-related loneliness.

Results

After controlling for demographic covariates, structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that (a) CEN was positively associated with parent-related loneliness (β = 0.64, p < .001), (b) SOD did not mediate the relationship between CEN and parent-related loneliness (β = −0.01, p = .142), (c) emotional detachment partially mediated the relationship between CEN and parent-related loneliness (β = 0.16, p < .001), and (d) SOD and emotional detachment partially and sequentially mediated the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness, albeit with a small effect size (β = 0.02, p = .027).

Conclusions

The findings underscore the significance of the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness in adolescence. Moreover, our results suggest that some adolescents with a history of CEN have difficulties in establishing clear boundaries between “self” and “other” and tend to engage in emotionally detached relationships with their parents, which may lead them to feel more parent-related loneliness. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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将童年的情感忽视与青少年与父母有关的孤独感联系起来：作为中介的自我-他者分化和与父母的情感分离

背景

儿童情感忽视（CEN）对长期情感和社会发展的有害作用在文献中越来越受到关注。在童年时期被情感忽视的人在青春期更容易感到被父母孤立和排斥。然而，人们对这种关联背后的中介过程知之甚少。

客观的

本研究调查了自我-他者分化 (SOD) 和与父母的情感分离是否介导了 CEN 与父母相关的孤独感之间的联系。

方法和参与者

535 名 13-18 岁高中生样本（63.6% 为女性；M_年龄 = 16.21；SD  = 1.40）完成了关于人口统计、CEN、SOD、情感分离和与父母相关的孤独感的问卷调查。

结果

在控制了人口学协变量后，结构方程模型 (SEM) 表明 (a) CEN 与父母相关的孤独感呈正相关 (β = 0.64, p  < .001)，(b) SOD 不介导 CEN 与父母之间的关系相关的孤独感（β = -0.01，p  = .142），（c）情感疏离部分介导了 CEN 与父母相关孤独感之间的关系（β = 0.16，p  < .001），以及（d）SOD 和情感疏离部分和顺序地介导了 CEN 与父母相关的孤独感之间的联系，尽管影响大小很小（β = 0.02，p  = .027）。

结论

研究结果强调了 CEN 与青春期父母相关孤独感之间联系的重要性。此外，我们的研究结果表明，一些有 CEN 病史的青少年难以在“自我”和“他人”之间建立清晰的界限，并且倾向于与父母建立情感分离的关系，这可能导致他们感到更多与父母有关的孤独感. 讨论了临床意义和未来研究的方向。