The Impact of Childhood Traumatic Experiences on Self-Esteem and Interpersonal Relationships

Objective: Traumatic experiences during childhood have an impact on the emotional states of individuals during their adulthood. The impacts of traumatic experiences during childhood on self-esteem will be examined in the present study. It was also aimed to examine the relationship between these traumatic experiences and self-esteem with interpersonal relation levels. Method: This was a descriptive-cross-sectional study carried out during the dates of February 11, 2018 and March 11, 2018 on Gaziantep university students. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Scale of dimensions of interpersonal relationships (SDIR), childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) were used. Results: Of the 926 students who participated in the study, 712 (76.9 %) were female, 214 (33.1 %) were male. The RSES total score of the students was 12.63±2.36, CTS total score was 48.0±20.97. CTQ were determined to be positively related with the empathy, trust, emotion awareness dimensions of SDIR and negatively related with approval dependence. This result is an indication of low trust, low emotion awareness, increased approval dependence and more empathy in interpersonal relationships. RSES total score was not determined to be related with CTQ total in our study, but a relationship was determined between RSES and only the emotional abuse sub-dimension. The mean scores of RSES in individuals were determined to have a negative relationship with trust and emotion sub-dimensions of SDIR and to have a positive relationship with the empathy and approval sub-dimensions. This result is an indication of less empathy, increase in approval dependence, low emotional awareness and decrease in trust with regard to interpersonal relationships. The differences found significant in the study can be listed as follows: the number of siblings in SDIR empathy dimension, family type in the trust dimension, alcohol use in emotion and trust dimension, gender in all of the emotion, empathy, trust and approval sub-dimensions, chronic disorders in the trust dimension, smoking in approval and emotion dimension, duration of internet use in the emotion sub-dimension. Significant differences were observed with regard to gender, parental attitudes, number of siblings, economic level, family type, alcohol use and smoking in CTQ scores. Duration of internet usage time in a day displayed statistical differences in RSES scores. Conclusion: Childhood traumas have impacts on all dimensions of interpersonal relationships. Self-esteem was determined to be related only with emotional abuse from childhood traumas and self-esteem has a significant impact on interpersonal relationships. Sociodemographic factor analysis has indicated that parental attitudes, family type, alcohol use and smoking, gender are related with childhood traumas, that the number of siblings, family type, alcohol use, gender, chronic disorder, smoking, duration of internet usage are related with interpersonal relationships and that internet usage is related with self-esteem. Improvement of positive parenthood and increase in the family-child interaction are effective and applicable methods for preventing abuse and neglect. Trainings on this subject are suggested since reliable-consistent relationships are important and since positive relationships decrease the risk of being subject to maltreatment.