Date of Publication :29th September 2023

Abstract: Inner child refers to childhood experiences that often result in currently shaped personality traits and maladjustments. When explored among children of solo parents, such childhood experiences are often neglected as the own challenging experience of the solo parent is mostly given attention. Karen Horney also argued that social behavior is influenced and characterized by early childhood experiences which prompted us to select and interview 15 young adults who grew up in a solo-parent environment so that we may explore how their childhood experiences resulted in behaviors that revolved toward moving towards, against, and away. With this, we also investigated the emotions that they experienced during such time of growing up in a solo parent environment which revealed that when revisited, they still re-experience feelings and emotions of shock, anger, and worry during the separation stage and while they were growing up, such emotions affected how they adjusted towards interpersonal relationships which suggest that when their inner child is revisited, they feel neglected and rejected.

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