Relationship Between Childhood Psychological Abuse And Neglect And Undergraduates' Personality

Objective: To understand the relationship between childhood psychological abuse and neglect experiences and undergraduates' personality.Object and Method: 216 undergraduates were investigated with Child psychological abuse and neglect questionnaire and Cattel 16PF.Results: 1. 45 testees (20.83% of the total) reported childhood psychological abuse experiences. 88 testees claimed neglect (40.74% of the total number). 32 students experienced both child psychological abuse and neglect (both psychological abuse and neglect factors≥1), which is 14.81% of the total number. No significant statistical difference (P＞0.05) was observed on both psychological abuse and neglect in different sexual students. 2. On total average score of psychological abuse, the average score of scold and the average score of threaten of the male students were higher than that of the females (P＜0.05). 3. The scores of personality traits A, C, F, G, H, Q₃, X₂ and X₃ of the abused students were lower than that of the unabused students (P＜0.05), while L, O and X1 were higher in abused students when comparing to the unabused ones (P＜0.05). 4. The scores of child psychological abuse and neglect had negative correlations with the scores of personality traits A, C, E, F, G, H, Q₃, X₂ and X₃, and had positive correlations with the personality traits L, O, Q₄ and X₁ (P＜0.05). 5. There were significant relationships between the psychological abuse and the personality traits in male students, negative correlations with some positive personality traits, positive correlations with some negative characteristics, and most of the correlation coefficients were higher than 0.3. For female students, neglect showed more correlation with the personality traits C,F,G,H,O,Q₃,Q₄,X₁,X₂ than psychological abuse showed.Conclusion: 1. Child psychological abuse and neglect are common experiences among undergraduates, and they are experienced more severe psychological abuse in male undergraduates than those in female ones. 2. Child psychological abuse and neglect have significant negative correlations with lots of positive personality traits of undergraduates, such as extroversion and optimism, uncloudedness and gregariousness, being stable in mind, aggressiveness and excitement, being perseverant and responsible, adventurousness, self-discipline and preciseness, sedateness and canniness in conducting themselves in society; And have significant positive correlations with some negative characteristics such as oversentiveness and obstinateness, depression and self-disturbance, annoyance and anxiety, poor ability of adapting to the environment. 3. Child psychological abuse and neglect may have different effects on the formation of undergraduates' personalities of different sexes.