Family environment and shame: is there a relationship?

This study was designed to examine the relationship between dysfunctional families in childhood and shame experienced by adults and compare feelings of guilt and shame. The results indicated that the shame young adults feel is correlated with their perceived family environment as a child. Greater feelings of shame on the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) were correlated with lower Family Environment Scale scores on Cohesion, Expressiveness, Intellectual-Cultural Orientation, Moral-Religious Emphasis and Organization and higher Conflict scores. Other variables were also examined. The results support the hypothesis that people coming from dysfunctional families experience more shame as adults and that guilt and shame are differentially related to dysfunctional families.