THE PERCEIVED EMOTIONAL ABUSE, IMPULSIVITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to test link between perceived emotional abuse and psychological distress in university students with a focus on its mediation through impulsivity. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and recruited 300 university students (18-35 years old) from different fields of study. The study provided descriptive statistics to report demographic profile of the participants, such as age, gender and educational level. The results showed perceived emotional abuse was positively and significantly related to depression, anxiety, and stress. The linear regression analysis also showed that perceived emotional abuse predicted psychological distress. However, perceived emotional abuse was not significantly associated with impulsivity & impulsivity was not significantly linked with psychological distress. The impulsivity did not mediate the association between perceived emotional abuse & psychological distress. In this regard, the results added to the current knowledge base by identifying perceived emotional abuse as an important psychological risk factor for university students' mental health. The findings indicated that the link between emotional abuse and distress is likely to be mediated by emotional and cognitive factors, rather than impulsivity.