Verbal abuse of children leads to physical, emotional harm

PHOTO | UNSPLASH

Research by Wingate University professor Dr. Shanta Dube found verbal abuse of children is harmful to their physical and mental health.

Berating a child can lead to stress they’ll take into adulthood.

Research by Wingate University professor Dr. Shanta Dube found verbal abuse of children is harmful to their physical and mental health. Dube, director of Wingate’s Master of Public Health program, led systematic research that found that verbal mistreatment such as shouting at, denigrating, belittling, and shaming – is as prevalent, and has as many long-term harms, as other forms of child abuse.

“If we don’t get childhood verbal abuse on the radar of detection and as its own subtype of maltreatment, it’s going to get worse,” she said in a statement. “We’ve got to stop it now.”

Dube, who spent her early professional career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Adverse Childhood Experiences study, insists that verbal abuse by adults – a subset of one of four recognized forms of child maltreatment – needs to be addressed in the same manner as sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.

“We’re seeing shifts in the prevalence, likely due to hard-hitting campaigns to build awareness around sexual abuse and physical abuse,” she said. “While they have not disappeared – sexual abuse and physical abuse still occur – we believe that increases in childhood verbal abuse may be replacing physical abuse.

“And it’s not recognized as a form of abuse. You can’t prevent it if you don’t know about it.”

Dube launched a systematic review last year of 166 child-abuse studies at the request of Jessica Bondy, founder of the United Kingdom-based charity Words Matter. Dube, a member of Words Matter’s board of advisors, worked with students and professors from University College London to do an in-depth evaluation of all 166 studies. Their peer-reviewed research was published this month in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

Wingate University professor Dr. Shanta Dube is chair of the Master of Public Health  program.

“A key attribute of childhood emotional abuse is the underlying adult-to-child perpetration of verbal abuse, which is characterized by shouting, yelling, denigrating the child, and verbal threats,” the researchers said. “These types of adult actions can be as damaging to a child’s development as other currently recognized and forensically established subtypes of maltreatment such as childhood physical and sexual abuse.”

Research shows that verbal abuse is on the rise, as other forms of abuse, such as physical and sexual abuse, have stabilized over the years, thanks to mitigating measures. According to the researchers, almost half of children have experienced verbal abuse from an authority figure such as a parent, teacher, or coach. Dube said such maltreatment can lead to physical issues for children, including obesity and high blood pressure as well as mental-health problems, such as suicidal ideation.

A study of 20,556 UK residents found that people who were verbally abused as children were almost twice as likely to use cannabis and end up in jail as those who weren’t.

Dube said providing support and help for abusive adults is a good first step to break the cycle of mistreatment.

“The way we’re positioning it, especially through Words Matter, is we’re really saying that the adults need support,” she said. “Typically, these adult behaviors are a result of the parenting they received or something they’ve experienced or learned. …This whole ‘sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ just is not true.”

Comments