| dc.description.abstract | Abuse is expressed through physical, sexual, and emotionally detrimental acts. Victims of abuse often experience cumulative abuse, which is defined as more than one type of abuse (Scott-Storey, 2011). There are many deleterious potential outcomes of abuse, including lowered social competence (Manly, Cichetti, and Barnett, 1994). Social competence includes empathy as a core feature (Han & Kemple, 2006). The current study aimed to determine if experiencing cumulative abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional) in childhood lowers empathy expression in adulthood. A sample of 224 undergraduate individuals at a large Midwestern university completed the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACES; Felitti et al., 1998) and Empathy Quotient (EQ; Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004). The individuals either reported no abuse history (N= 149) or that they experienced one (N= 52), two (N= 19), or three (N= 4) types of abuse; neglect was null. A One-way ANOVA was conducted and the researchers found that experiencing abuse (one, two, or three types) in childhood is not related to individuals' adult empathic concern. Factors that were not assessed could play a role in why cumulative abuse experience did not impact empathy. For instance, some protective factors supported for decreasing negative effects of traumatic exposure (Carver, 1998; Maheux & Price, 2016) could specifically serve to buffer the effects of child abuse on empathy development and expression. Future directions are discussed. | |
