Citation

Gibb BE, Chelminski I, Zimmerman M. Depress. Anxiety 2007; 24(4): 256-263.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA. bgibb@binghamton.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/da.20238

PMID

17041933

Abstract

Although a number of theorists have hypothesized a link between negative experiences during childhood (e.g., abuse) and the presence of psychopathology in adults, little is known about the relative specificity of childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse to different forms of psychopathology. In this study, we hypothesized that adult psychiatric outpatients' reports of childhood emotional abuse would exhibit a specific relationship with diagnoses of depression. Analyses partially supported our hypothesis. Specifically, diagnoses of major depression were significantly more strongly related to reports of childhood emotional abuse than to physical or sexual abuse. However, the same effect was observed for social phobia. In addition, patients with major depression reported equivalent levels of childhood emotional abuse as patients with social phobia, but lower levels of emotional abuse than those with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Language: en