Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Maladaptive Daydreaming Among Adolescents: Mediating Role of Emotional Processing

The present study aimed to investigate the role of childhood emotional maltreatment and maladaptive daydreaming in relation to emotional processing among adolescents. The study was based on cross-sectional design and the sample comprised of 200 adolescents (100 male and 100 female), age ranges from 13-18 years from district Swabi. Childhood Emotional Maltreatment questionnaire (Clarke, 2015), 16-Item Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (Somer et al., 2016) and Emotional Processing scale (Baker et al., 2009) were used to collect data. Results revealed that there is a positive relationship between childhood emotional maltreatment, maladaptive daydreaming and emotional processing. Furthermore childhood emotional maltreatment also predicts maladaptive daydreaming as well as emotional processing partially mediated the relationship between childhood emotional maltreatment and maladaptive daydreaming among adolescents. The findings of study will provide insight to the parents that they should made efforts to highlight child emotional needs in order to overcome their mental health issues. Findings will also help the practitioners in the development of prophylactic strategies for children who are emotionally maltreated based on parental training in emotional growth and positive or constructive daydreaming.