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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2012

Open Access 01-12-2012 | Research article

Emotional but not physical maltreatment is independently related to psychopathology in subjects with various degrees of social anxiety: a web-based internet survey

Authors: Benjamin Iffland, Lisa M Sansen, Claudia Catani, Frank Neuner

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2012

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Abstract

Background

Previous studies reported that social phobia is associated with a history of child maltreatment. However, most of these studies focused on physical and sexual maltreatment whilst little is known about the specific impact of emotional abuse and neglect on social anxiety. We examined the association between emotional maltreatment, including parental emotional maltreatment as well as emotional peer victimization, and social anxiety symptoms in subjects with various degrees of social anxiety.

Methods

The study was conducted as a web-based Internet survey of participants (N = 995) who had social anxiety symptoms falling within the high range, and including many respondents who had scores in the clinical range. The assessment included measures of child maltreatment, emotional peer victimization, social anxiety symptoms and general psychopathology.

Results

Regression and mediation analyses revealed that parental emotional maltreatment and emotional peer victimization were independently related to social anxiety and mediated the impact of physical and sexual maltreatment. Subjects with a history of childhood emotional maltreatment showed higher rates of psychopathology than subjects with a history of physical maltreatment.

Conclusions

Although our findings are limited by the use of an Internet survey and retrospective self-report measures, data indicated that social anxiety symptoms are mainly predicted by emotional rather than physical or sexual types of victimization.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Emotional but not physical maltreatment is independently related to psychopathology in subjects with various degrees of social anxiety: a web-based internet survey
Authors
Benjamin Iffland
Lisa M Sansen
Claudia Catani
Frank Neuner
Publication date
01-12-2012
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2012
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-12-49

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