An Exploratory Study of Physical Abuse–Related Shame, Guilt, and Blame in a Sample of Youth Receiving Child Protective Services: Links to Maltreatment, Anger, and Aggression

Maladaptive processing of self-conscious emotions (shame, absence of guilt) and externalized attributions (blame) are thought to impair social functioning and contribute to problems with anger and aggression. However, researchers generally focused on dysfunctional traits (i.e., shame-, guilt-, and blame-proneness) rather than emotions and attributions that are generated by traumatic events, such as childhood abuse. Using self-report data from a …