Adults – including parents, teachers and coaches – shouting at, denigrating or verbally threatening children can be as damaging to their development as sexual or physical abuse, a new study finds.
The study, published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, reviewed 166 earlier studies to produce a detailed analysis of the existing literature on the topic.
The authors called for childhood verbal abuse to be ascribed its own category of maltreatment to facilitate prevention.
Child maltreatment is currently classified into four categories — physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, of which verbal abuse is a part, and neglect — and this study can inform strategies for prevention and treatment.
