Chronic shame may drive destructive thought patterns in abuse survivors

Adults who experienced emotional abuse as children often struggle with destructive thought patterns, such as ruminating on failures or avoiding negative feelings. A recent study published in the British Journal of Psychology suggests that chronic feelings of shame may link this early maltreatment to these harmful mental habits. By understanding how shame operates, psychologists may be better equipped to help survivors regulate their emotions in healthier ways.

Childhood emotional abuse involves caregivers engaging in non-physical maltreatment. This can include threatening, terrorizing, or constantly belittling a child. These early experiences of humiliation directly attack a child’s developing sense of self-worth.

Survivors of emotional abuse frequently develop difficulties with emotion regulation in adulthood. They often rely on aversive cognitive perseveration. This psychological term describes a tendency to over-engage with negative thoughts while simultaneously trying to reject or avoid negative feelings.

Aversive cognitive perseveration consists of three main components. The first is brooding rumination, which involves getting stuck on self-reproaching thoughts. The second is experiential avoidance, where a person puts effort into suppressing unwanted internal sensations. The third is emotional non-acceptance, which occurs when a person becomes angry or upset at themselves simply for feeling distressed.

These habits represent a type of response-focused emotion regulation. This means the person attempts to manage an emotion after it has already fully emerged, rather than trying to change their perspective beforehand. This late-stage regulation is often exhausting and counterproductive, leaving the individual trapped in a cycle of distress.

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Shame is a powerful emotion that centers on a devalued sense of self. Unlike guilt, which focuses on a specific bad action, shame focuses on the idea that the entire person is flawed. Shame can exist as a chronic trait, meaning a person frequently feels inadequate across many situations. It can also occur as a temporary state in response to a specific humiliating event.

Mohammadali Amini-Tehrani, a psychology researcher at the University of Western Australia, led a team to investigate the mechanisms behind these psychological challenges. The researchers wanted to know if shame serves as the bridge between a history of childhood emotional abuse and the use of cognitive perseveration in adulthood.

The study involved 93 undergraduate students. First, the participants completed a series of questionnaires. They reported any history of childhood maltreatment, including emotional abuse. They also answered questions about their general tendencies to experience chronic shame and their usual reliance on cognitive perseveration in daily life.

Next, the participants engaged in a laboratory experiment designed to induce a temporary feeling of shame. They played a computer game called Cyberball, a well-established psychological tool for studying social exclusion. In the game, participants believed they were tossing a virtual ball back and forth with three other real people. In reality, the other players were computerized avatars programmed to eventually stop passing the ball to the participant.

To heighten the feeling of shame, the researchers modified the standard game. The game ended with a direct message informing the participant that they were being removed from the activity for having the lowest performance in the group. After this rejection, the researchers assessed the participants’ immediate feelings of shame and negative affect. Following a brief distraction task, the researchers measured the participants’ immediate use of cognitive perseveration strategies.

The researchers first analyzed the data to see how chronic tendencies related to behavior in the lab. They found that a history of childhood emotional abuse predicted higher levels of chronic shame. This chronic shame then predicted a greater reliance on cognitive perseveration in general life. It also predicted a higher use of these harmful thought patterns immediately following the laboratory rejection.

The team also tested whether an immediate spike in shame during the game would link past abuse to immediate cognitive perseveration. The results were not statistically significant in the expected direction. Participants with a history of emotional abuse did not report higher immediate shame or higher immediate cognitive perseveration right after being rejected in the game.

Looking closer at the data, the researchers noticed an unexpected pattern. For participants who reported moderate to severe levels of childhood emotional abuse, immediate feelings of shame and cognitive perseveration actually decreased after the rejection. The researchers suggest this might reflect a blunted emotional response. People who have experienced severe early stress sometimes develop an emotional numbness or physiological detachment when faced with new stressful situations.

Regardless of abuse history, the study confirmed a robust link between shame and cognitive perseveration. Whether measured as a chronic trait or an immediate reaction, higher feelings of shame consistently accompanied higher levels of brooding, avoidance, and emotional non-acceptance. The researchers suggest that when people feel a deep sense of shame, they try to fix the perceived flaws in themselves through intense overthinking.

Clinically, these findings highlight the need for targeted therapies. Mental health practitioners might need to help clients distinguish between generalized distress and specific feelings of shame. Because shame inherently encourages avoidance, it can be difficult for people to recognize it in themselves.

The study relied on a sample of 93 students, which limits the statistical power of the analyses. The findings based on this sample size provide tentative suggestions rather than definitive answers. Additionally, the participants were university students who were screened to exclude severe depression. This screening means the results might not automatically apply to clinical populations or the broader community.

The experiment also relied entirely on self-reported feelings collected during a single session. Participants might not always have accurate insight into their own emotional responses. The laboratory task might have also induced other emotions, such as fear or shock, which could have influenced the participants’ thought patterns. Researchers cannot be certain that shame was the sole driver of the observed behaviors.

Future studies could incorporate physiological measures, such as heart rate or skin conductance, to track bodily reactions alongside subjective feelings. Observing these physical markers could help clarify whether survivors of emotional abuse experience a physiological shutdown during stressful events. Researchers could also track participants over a longer period to see how immediate feelings of shame might solidify into long-term negative self-views.

The study, “Shame as a mediator of the association of childhood emotional abuse with aversive cognitive perseveration in adults,” was authored by Mohammadali Amini-Tehrani, Michael Weinborn, Kenneth Sim, Jeneva L. Ohan, and Kristin Naragon-Gainey.