Psychological abuse, internalising, and externalising behaviours of students: A latent profile analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the types of psychological abuse and their relationship with internalising and externalising behaviours among Chinese junior middle school students (n = 619; male = 49.1%, female = 50.9%; mean age = 13.5 years, SD = 1.152 years). Latent profile analysis revealed four psychological abuse profiles: low, medium-low, medium-high, and high. Those students with high psychological abuse profiles also reported high internalising and externalising behaviours compared to those with lower psychological abuse profiles. Multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that gender and school grade differences had a significant impact on psychological abuse profiles. This finding suggested that boys were more likely to have a high psychological abuse profile than girls, and students in Grade 8 were more likely to have a high psychological abuse profile than students in Grade 9. Our findings underscore the importance of designing and implementing psychological abuse treatment interventions by profiles of the children for higher efficacy in reducing the risk of internalising and externalising behaviours.