Parental representations and psychological pain: An exploratory study

Ana Sofia Fragata, Rui C. Campos, Cristina Baleizão

Abstract


The aim of this exploratory study is to test, in community adults, the relationship between of parental representations and psychological pain. The final sample consisted of 164 participants, aged between 18 and 65 years, who have responded to the Psychache Scale and the o Inventory for Assessing Memories of Parental Rearing Behaviour (EMBU) and gave a free description of each parental figure. These descriptions were coded using the Differentiation-Relatedness (D-R) Scale. Results demonstrate that with the exception of the DR level for description of the mother, the remaining five variables DR level for the description of the father, father rejection, mother rejection, father overprotection and mother overprotection correlate significantly with the psychological pain variable. A forward multiple regression analysis showed that the variables DR level for the description of the father, father rejection, and mother overprotection made a significant contribution to the prediction of psychological pain, although explaining a low percentage of variance of psychological pain. This model was corroborated by Structural Equation Modeling. The findings are discussed within the framework of psychoanalytic theory and Rohner's acceptance-rejection perspective.

Keywords


Parental representations, Psychological pain, Rejection, Overprotection.

References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.14417/ap.1602

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