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; Method: 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. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.