Hurtful Family Environments: Links with Individual, Relationship, and Perceptual Variables

Abstract

Family members create a social environment that varies in terms of the degree to which it evokes hurt. Two studies were conducted to examine the nature of hurtful family environments and to assess whether the association between people's experience of their family environment as hurtful and their perceptions of hurtful family interactions could be described by a sensitization or a habituation model. The results indicated that hurtful family environments are characterized by aggression, a lack of affection, neglect, and violence. Individuals’ views of their family environment as aggressive were negatively associated with their own verbal hostility and their self-esteem, but positively linked to their anxiety and to their tendency to see a family member's hurtful behavior as intentional. People's tendency to note their family displayed a lack of affection was positively linked to their own verbal hostility and negatively associated with their self-esteem. The findings also offered partial support for a habituation model: Those who said their family environment was characterized by a lack of affection rated hurtful family interactions as less emotionally painful than did others. Together, the results provide a rationale for examining the emotional contexts created by family members as well as the implications of those contexts for individuals and their family relationships.

Keywords:

• Hurt
• Hurt Feelings
• Emotion
• Family
• Family Environments

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Alan Sillars and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments regarding this article.

Notes

1. Certainly, people may experience single events in the context of their family that are extremely hurtful. However, isolated events do not necessarily comprise a hurtful family environment. For instance, family members may respond to extremely hurtful, traumatic events with reassurances, affection, and other behaviors that demonstrate concern. Regularly responding to hurtful events in such positive ways may help to alleviate emotional pain and, thus, are likely to preclude individuals from evaluating their family environment as hurtful.

2. The term “family” purposefully was not defined because the goal was to have participants respond to the items in terms of the group of people that they, themselves, defined as their family. It is possible that some respondents referenced their biological family, whereas others included members of a stepfamily or a blended family. The family structure referenced by participants was not as important as the fact that they referenced people they viewed as members of their family.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anita L. Vangelisti

Anita L. Vangelisti (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin

Kathryn C. Maguire

Kathryn C. Maguire (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Communication Management at Cleveland State University

Alicia L. Alexander

Alicia L. Alexander (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville

Gretchen Clark

Gretchen Clark is a PhD student in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin