Self-concept and social competence of university student victims of childhood physical abuse.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined the impact of childhood physical abuse on self-concept and social competency of older adolescents and assessed perception of parental relationships as a mediator for consequences of abuse on social adjustment.


METHODS
College undergraduates (n = 660) completed: (a) the Social Skills Inventory (SSI), a measure of social competence, (b) the Self-Description Questionnaire-III (SDQ-III), a multidimensional measure of self-concept, (c) the parent scales of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), a measure of perceived parental support, and (d) the Assessing Environments-III (AE-III), a retrospective report of family environment and parenting practices.


RESULTS
Analyses, controlling for socioeconomic status and ethnicity, showed that a history of physical abuse was predictive of current self-concept, but did not predict social competence as an older adolescent. Further analyses lend support to a mediational model, suggesting that physical abuse has a negative impact on self-concept through its negative effect on parent-child relationships.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate that childhood physical abuse has a negative impact on the self-concept of the older adolescent. However, this impact can be better understood by investigating its potentially harmful effect on parent-child relationships. The impact of physical abuse on adolescents' social competence was not supported in this study.
Lopez
M A
MA
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-4235, USA.
Heffer
R W
RW
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012649:Self Concept; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012919:Social Behavior