Research presentation by Langston University students with Kamden Strunk on men's versus women's self-esteem, and the influence of childhood trauma and parental devaluation.

1. Problem
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the
relationship between parental devaluation and self-
esteem among college students, and the role childhood
trauma may play in this relationship. Of particular
interest was the differential pattern of these associations
among men and women.
Method
•Participants
•College students (90 men, 134 women).
•Recruited from two Midwestern state universities.
•Mean Age was 21.39.
•Instruments
•Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Short Form
(Bernstein, et al., 2003).
•Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1986).
•A Parent Devaluation Scale, which was written
specifically for this study and showed good reliability
(Alpha = .835) in the current sample.
•This scale was modeled from the Rosenberg
•We had to use the Rosenberg to inspire the tone
and design for Parental Devaluation questions.
•Parent scale acted as the mediating factor for the
pathanalysis.
•Showed the indirect relationship between
physical,emotional, and sexual abuse as it
indirectly effects parentdevaluation.
•This scale has never been used before and was
constructed for the purpose of this study only.
Results
•A path model was constructed with paths from
childhood trauma: emotional abuse, sexual abuse and
emotional neglect
•Demonstrating direct and indirect influence on self-
esteem
•For men and women:
•The research suggests that there are indirect
influences of childhood trauma on self-esteem.
•The path models are significantly different in the men
versus women in this sample (Δχ26 = 16.522, p = .011).
Thus, although childhood trauma influences perceived
parent devaluation and self-esteem, and parent
devaluation also directly influences self-esteem in both
groups, the patterns of influence are significantly
different
Conclusions
•Physical trauma, in this case sexual abuse, had a
stronger influence for men.
•Meanwhile emotional trauma, had a stronger influence
for women, representing a pattern reversal.
•The reasons that women’s perceptions were influenced
more by emotional abuse while men’s were influenced
more by sexual abuse.
•Indicator that this should be explored in future research.
For more information or a list of references, please
contact fletcherk2@yahoo.com or
kamden.strunk@okstate.edu
•For men
•sexual abuse and emotional neglect were associated
with parent devaluation.
•Sexual abuse had the strongest influence on self-
esteem followed by parent devaluation, emotional
neglect and finally emotional abuse.
•For women:
•emotional abuse and emotional neglect were
associated with perception of parent devaluation
•parent devaluation had the strongest influence on
self-esteem followed by emotional neglect),
emotional abuse and sexual abuse.
Men’s versus Women’s Self-Esteem: Influences of
Childhood Trauma and Parental Devaluation
Kaiya Fletcher, Dontavius Robinson, Kamden K. Strunk, Yvonne K. Montgomery
Emotional
Abuse
Sexual Abuse
Emotional
Neglect
.739.406
.365 Parent
Devaluation
Self-Esteem
.507
.435
-.342
-.166NS
-.302
.687
-.142NS
-.073NS
.711
Men
Emotional
Abuse
Sexual Abuse
Emotional
Neglect
.513.421
.390
Parent
Devaluation
Self-Esteem
.065NS
.471
-.027NS
-.170
-.438
.767
.209
-.138NS
.784
Women
Men
Variable Direct Indirect Total
Emotional Neglect -.166 -.131 -.298
Sexual Abuse -.342 -.153 -.495
Emotional Abuse -.073 .043 -.030
Parent Devaluation -.302 -.302
Women
Variable Direct Indirect Total
Emotional Neglect -170 -.206 -.376
Sexual Abuse -.027 -.028 -.056
Emotional Abuse -.138 -.091 -.229
Parent Devaluation -.438 -.438