A new study suggests that verbal abuse of children by parents may be even more likely to cause psychiatric problems in later life than physical abuse.
“Individuals interested in the welfare of maltreated children should not underestimate the consequences of verbal abuse,” Dr. Martin H. Teicher of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues write in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Also, they say, “Careful attention should be given to the number of different types of traumatic experiences a child was exposed to, as this may be even more critical than the specific type of abuse.”
The effects on psychiatric symptoms for exposure to emotional abuse only were equal to those for people who suffered only sexual abuse or only physical abuse, the researchers found. Emotional abuse actually had a stronger effect on symptoms of dissociation than did physical or sexual abuse, while people exposed to both verbal abuse and witnessing domestic violence showed more dissociation than those exposed to familial sexual abuse.
Psychiatric symptoms increased with the number of types of abuse a person had experienced. Among people in the study who had experienced maltreatment, the researchers note, 59% had experienced more than one type.
“These findings raise the possibility that exposure to verbal aggression may be a stressor that affects the development of certain vulnerable brain regions in susceptible individuals, resulting in psychiatric (consequences),” the researchers write.
SOURCE: American Journal of Psychiatry, June 2006.
I think this article speaks for itself and should help some evaluate how they verbally communicate or verbally dominate a child.
Dr. Benzinger
