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Parents, teachers, coaches, and other adults who yell, insult, or verbally threaten children can be just as detrimental to a child’s development as sexual or physical abuse. there is. study find.
The study, published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, reviewed 166 earlier studies and provided a detailed analysis of the existing literature on the topic.
The authors called for classifying childhood verbal abuse into its own category of maltreatment to facilitate prevention.
Child abuse is currently divided into four categories: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse (which also includes verbal abuse), and neglect, and this research could inform prevention and treatment strategies.
Unlike other forms of emotional abuse, such as indifference, the silent treatment, or witnessing domestic violence, researchers categorized verbal abuse as more “overt” and “needs special attention”. He said there is.
The study was commissioned by Words Matter, a British charity that aims to improve children’s health by ending verbal abuse, and was conducted by researchers at Wingate University in North Carolina and University College London. It was carried out by
“Childhood verbal abuse has lifelong negative consequences and desperately needs to be recognized as a subtype of maltreatment,” said the study’s lead author and director of the Master of Public Health program at Wingate University. Professor Shanta Dube said in a statement.
The study, which investigated the effects of shouting by adults such as parents, teachers, and coaches, suggests that the lasting effects of childhood verbal abuse can manifest as psychological distress such as depression and anger. The paper is cited. Externalizing symptoms such as criminal behavior, drug use, and abusive behavior. Effects on physical health such as obesity and development of lung disease.
Jessica Bondi, founder of Words Matter, stressed the importance of understanding “the true scale and impact of childhood verbal abuse.”
“As adults, sometimes we get so overburdened that we unintentionally say something,” she said in a statement. “We must work together to recognize this behavior and devise ways to end childhood verbal abuse by adults so that children can thrive.”
This latest According to the 2014 World Health Organization and four other papers cited in the new study, the prevalence of child abuse is increasing while physical and sexual abuse are decreasing, potentially increasing “Significant changes may be occurring in child abuse,” the study found. .
The researchers also called for “the need for consistency” in defining childhood verbal abuse “so that the prevalence and impact can be adequately measured and interventions developed.”
Resources available on the Words Matter website include: Adults should avoid yelling, insulting, belittling, or name-calling when talking to children, think twice before speaking, and avoid talking to children after something hurtful has been said. Please take time to repair your relationship.
Similarly, the first rule when it comes to yelling is to not shout criticism, said Elizabeth Gershoff, a professor of human development and family sciences and parent discipline researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, in 2019. He told CNN in 2017.
It’s also important to consider the audience, she added. Although young children are likely to only absorb the irritation and not the content of the yelling, some children react differently to being yelled at.
Update: The heading of this article has been updated to clarify the type of harm that verbal abuse can cause to children.
