Childhood Violence and Empathy Among Young Adults: Mediating Role of Emotional Desensitization

The present study investigated the interrelationship among childhood violence, empathy, and emotional desensitization among young adults through convergent parallel mixed-method design. Quantitative sample included 200 young adults with age 18-35 years who were recruited in the city of Islamabad, Pakistan but on the other hand, qualitative data were gathered by means of semi-structured interviews with eight interviewees. Childhood violence was operationalized through the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ -28), emotional desensitization through the Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS -21), and empathy through Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ -16). The quantitative analysis showed that emotional desensitization was positively and empathy was negatively connected with childhood violence (p