Childhood Psychological Abuse Predicted Lower Adult Relationship Satisfaction Through Reduced Belongingness

TL;DR: A 2026 longitudinal study in Personality and Individual Differences followed 346 Turkish young adults across two survey waves three months apart and found that childhood psychological abuse predicted lower adult relationship satisfaction, with a reduced sense of belonging acting as the statistical mediator linking the early adversity to the later romantic outcome.

Source: Personality and Individual Differences (2026) | İme

Childhood psychological abuse — constant criticism, emotional manipulation, intentional humiliation by a parent or caregiver — is harder to measure than physical or sexual abuse and has been comparatively understudied in the adult-relationship literature.

Attachment theory and Klein’s object relations framework both predict that the relational patterns formed in early childhood shape how a person experiences closeness in adulthood. The mechanism that has not been clearly tested is which specific psychological process carries the long-term effect.

This Turkish longitudinal study tested whether reduced sense of belonging is the linking mechanism between childhood emotional abuse and adult romantic dissatisfaction.

346 Turkish Young Adults Surveyed Across Two Three-Month-Apart Waves

The work was led by Yakup İme, an associate professor of counseling psychology at Necmettin Erbakan University in Konya, Türkiye.

The design:

• Sample: 346 university students (213 women, 133 men) aged 20-36; average age ~25.
• Wave 1: February 2025, in-person printed survey forms.
• Wave 2: May 2025, same format.
• Identifier matching: Pseudonyms plus the last three digits of phone numbers and the last few letters of parents’ names allowed matching across waves while preserving anonymity.
• Three measures: 12-item childhood psychological abuse scale, 7-item relationship satisfaction scale, 12-item belongingness scale measuring social acceptance and rejection.

The two-wave design lets the analysis test whether the mediation pattern holds over time, not just at a single snapshot. Three months is short for a longitudinal design but long enough to capture stability of the abuse-belongingness-satisfaction chain.

Why Belongingness Was the Hypothesized Mediator

İme’s choice of belongingness as the mediator came from two theoretical traditions:

• Klein’s object relations framework: Internalized representations of early caregiving relationships shape how a person experiences emotional closeness throughout life.
• Bowlby’s attachment theory: Early bonds with caregivers create the blueprint for future relationships, including how secure or rejected one feels in adult romantic contexts.

İme described the framing:

“My interest in this topic was shaped by the idea that early parent-child relationships can leave enduring imprints on how individuals experience closeness and satisfaction in their adult romantic lives… These theoretical approaches suggest that internalized relational patterns formed in childhood can influence emotional bonds in adulthood. This perspective ultimately motivated me to explore belongingness as a key mechanism linking early adversity to later relationship satisfaction.”

Belongingness — the general feeling of being accepted, valued, and supported — sits naturally between childhood relational experience and adult romantic satisfaction in this theoretical framework.

Childhood Psychological Abuse Predicted Lower Adult Relationship Satisfaction

The direct association between early-life psychological abuse and adult romantic outcomes came out clearly in the data.

The headline pattern:

• Higher childhood psychological abuse scores were associated with lower adult relationship satisfaction.
• The pattern was consistent across the two waves three months apart, arguing against a one-time mood-driven artifact.
• Effect direction matched the theoretical prediction of attachment and object-relations frameworks.

The link itself is not new in the literature. The contribution of the study is the test of why the link exists.

Belongingness Carried the Effect From Early Abuse to Adult Romance

The mediation analysis is the analytical centerpiece of the study.

The pattern:

• Childhood psychological abuse predicted lower belongingness in adulthood.
• Lower belongingness predicted lower relationship satisfaction.
• The indirect path through belongingness accounted for a substantial portion of the abuse-satisfaction link, supporting belongingness as a real mediator rather than a third spectator variable.

The interpretive framing:

“This study shows that psychological abuse experienced during childhood can lead individuals to feel less happy and fulfilled in their future romantic relationships. A key reason for this is the damage done to a person’s sense of ‘belonging’ and being loved at an early age.”

Self-Report, Three-Month Window, and Single-Site Sample Limit the Conclusions

• Self-reported measures: All three constructs were captured by participant questionnaires. Social desirability bias and subjective interpretation could shift responses.
• Three-month gap is short: A longer follow-up (years) would let the analysis distinguish stable patterns from temporary mood-driven shifts.
• Single Turkish university sample: Cultural norms, family structures, and educational systems specific to this region may limit generalization to other cultures and demographic groups.
• Cross-sectional within each wave: Even with two waves, the design cannot rule out that some unmeasured third variable (early-life socioeconomic context, current life stress) drives all three measures.
• Other mediators not tested: İme noted that self-esteem, interpersonal trust, and resilience are plausible additional mediators that were not modeled here. The belongingness pathway is one of likely several.

Belongingness Is a Plausible Intervention Target for Adults With Early-Abuse Histories

The clinical and developmental implications follow from the mediation finding:

• Belongingness-focused interventions for early-abuse adults: If belongingness carries the effect, therapy and support that explicitly rebuild the sense of being accepted and valued may be a high-leverage target for adults with early emotional-abuse histories.
• Childhood prevention is the most direct lever: İme’s broader framing emphasizes that protecting children from emotional mistreatment early prevents the cascade entirely.
• Multi-mediator analyses are the next research step: Adding self-esteem, interpersonal trust, and resilience to the mediation framework would clarify how much of the early-abuse-to-adult-romance link is uniquely belongingness-driven vs shared with related constructs.
• Cross-cultural and partner-reported replication: İme’s stated long-term plans include observational and partner-reported data plus broader cultural samples to strengthen the causal inference.