Childhood emotional maltreatment and emotional intelligence in adolescents: The mediating role of mindfulness

Background

Childhood emotional maltreatment is detrimental to adolescents' emotional intelligence. However, most research has concentrated on the overall experience of childhood emotional maltreatment, leaving the outcomes of specific types of emotional maltreatment (i.e., emotional abuse and emotional neglect) and the mechanisms underlying these effects largely unexplored.

Objective

Guided by the dimensional theory and the family risk factor model, this study used a two-wave longitudinal design to explore the association between two types of childhood emotional maltreatment and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, mindfulness's mediating role was also examined from the perspective of the schema theory.

Methods

This study included 580 Chinese teenagers (237 males; M_age = 15.94), who filled out questionnaires assessing childhood emotional maltreatment, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. Path analyses and semi-longitudinal mediation analyses were conducted.

Results

According to the results of path analyses, only childhood emotional abuse predicted emotional intelligence, while neglect did not. Furthermore, the findings from the semi-longitudinal mediation indicated that mindfulness mediated the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and emotional intelligence.

Conclusions

The current study's findings highlighted the differential predictive effects of two types of childhood emotional maltreatment on emotional intelligence among teenagers, as well as the mediating role of mindfulness in this association. Thus, mindfulness may be a key area for intervention and may help to enhance the emotional intelligence of adolescents who have experienced childhood emotional abuse.