Parenting practices and their influences on self-esteem and emotional abuse : the healing professionals' perception

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the healing professionals’ perception of whether parents’ practices affect the child’s self-esteem and can actually lead the child to suffer from emotional abuse. This aim of this study is to learn more about emotional abuse, self-esteem, the possible relationship between the two, and the possible implication of parental practices and attitudes in influencing either self-esteem or emotional abuse. The healing professional at the University Counselling Services were the population that | researched. Their experience with students who are either emotionally abused or who have low self-esteem is an asset for reaching my main objective of the dissertation. An open-ended interview with questions surrounding the themes of emotional abuse, low self-esteem and parental practices was utilized with the healing professionals. The results obtained point out to a strong relationship between emotional abuse and low self-esteem as influenced by parental practices. The main findings of the counsellors’ responses conclude that parents who trigger low self- esteem in their children, or parents who emotionally abuse their children with their practices, may be reflecting their personal experience of low self-esteem or emotional abuse. As a result the children develop low self-esteem and become liable to be emotionally abused by their parent’s practices. Moreover, the situation may develop differently where the children who are emotionally abused by their parents develop low self-esteem. The latter situation experienced by children is the most identifiable, as low self-esteem is easier to detect than emotional abuse. Lack of consensus about definitions of emotional abuse, and the importance of research about the subject, where critically analysed and discussed.