Domestic Emotional Abuse in Childhood: A Small-Scale Database Study Based on Adult Retrospective Accounts

Recent scholarship has increasingly highlighted the long-term consequences of childhood emotional abuse, particularly its impact on mental health and psychological well-being. While children are often the focus of such investigations, this study adopts a retrospective approach by surveying adult participants about their experiences of domestic emotional abuse during childhood. The collected responses were organised into a relational database to facilitate structured analysis and assess the prevalence and severity of reported abuse. The survey instrument was developed in line with established Healthline.com guidelines for categorising emotional abuse, thereby ensuring consistency in the classification of experiences.

Analysis of the data revealed that 13.89% of respondents reported experiencing extremely high levels of domestic emotional abuse, 22.22% reported high levels, and 25% reported moderate levels, primarily initiated by family members. These findings point to the enduring psychological toll of domestic environments where abuse occurs, even when such incidents remain undocumented at the time.

By utilising retrospective self-reports and a database-driven analytical framework, this study provides insight into the prevalence of childhood emotional abuse as remembered in adulthood. The results underscore the need for early intervention, broader awareness, and more comprehensive research to address the hidden yet pervasive effects of emotional maltreatment within families.