SELF-DISCREPANCIES IN YOUNG-ADULTS AND CHILDHOOD VIOLENCE

Drawing on Higgins, Klein, and Strauman's (1985) self-discrepancy theo ry of anxiety and depression, we investigated the relation between vio lence in childhood and later discrepancies in young adults between the ir perceptions of their actual self and the self they felt they ought to be or would ideally like to be. Reports of early violence were sign ificantly associated with actual-ought self-discrepancies, and also wi th perceived parental actual-ought discrepancies, but not with actual- ideal discrepancies. The data were consistent with two main possibilit ies: first, that violence creates parental discrepancies that subseque ntly lead to self-discrepancies in their children and, second, that pa rental perceptions that their children are not as they ought to be len d independently both to greater violence and to the creation of self-d iscrepancies in their offspring.