One’s risk for perpetrating child maltreatment is believed to be affected by the parentchild
relationship in one’s family of origin. Drawing from literatures on parenting and
child maltreatment, the current study examined whether growing up in an enmeshed or
disengaged relationship with one’s mother, hence a relationship characterized by extreme
amounts of emotional distance, increased one’s risk of child maltreatment perpetration.
As hypothesized, both low and high emotional distance predicted child abuse potential
and unrealistic expectations of children. In addition, emotional reactivity was found to
mediate the relationship between extreme emotional distance and child abuse potential
and directly predict unrealistic expectations of children, whereas empathy was not found
to be a mediator. In addition, the study found that extreme amounts of emotional distance
had an impact on child abuse potential over and above a history of childhood
maltreatment, and history of childhood maltreatment predicted unrealistic expectations of
children.