Antecedents, correlates, and consequences of feeling like you don't matter: Associations with maltreatment, loneliness, social anxiety, and the five-factor model

• We tested if childhood maltreatment contributes to a sense of not mattering.
• We also investigated the links between mattering and psychosocial adjustment.
• Mattering was linked with higher emotional maltreatment and neglect.
• Mattering was further linked with greater loneliness and social anxiety.
• Mattering mediated the associations between maltreatment and maladjustment.

While mattering to others is regarded as an essential element of personal adjustment, relatively little is known about the developmental origins and psychosocial correlates of mattering. The current research examined the extent to which a reported history of childhood maltreatment contributed to feelings of not mattering to others. We also examined the associations between mattering and measures of psychosocial adjustment (i.e., loneliness and social anxiety) and whether low perceived mattering was associated with these indices of adjustment after controlling for variance attributable to the broad personality traits comprising the five-factor model. A sample of 232 university students completed a general mattering measure and scales tapping childhood maltreatment, the five-factor model, loneliness, and social anxiety. As expected, mattering was associated negatively with reports of emotional maltreatment and emotional neglect with the strongest association being with emotional neglect. Additionally, low mattering was associated with loneliness and social anxiety and these findings held after taking into account the clear links that reduced mattering had with low extraversion and high neuroticism. We also showed that mattering mediates the links that maltreatment has with both loneliness and social phobia. The results illustrate the interpersonal antecedents and correlates of feeling insignificant and unimportant to other people.