Self-defeating personality and memories of parents' child-rearing behaviour.

A group of 132 nonclinical volunteers was given the Self-defeating Personality Scale and a short version of the Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran (EMBU) scale to explore correlations of scores for adults' self-defeating traits with memories of parents' child-rearing behaviours. For men, the recall of two rejecting parents and, for women, the memory of a nonsupportive father were significantly correlated with scores of self-defeating traits. The latter scores correlated positively with memories of both overinvolved mother and father for men, while no significant correlation was found among women.