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Home  Feature Articles What You Say to Your Kids Matters for a Lifetime
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What You Say to Your Kids Matters for a Lifetime |
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Friday, 30 June 2006 |
Verbal abuse can have a lifelong effect. According to a study published in The Journal of Affective Disorders, it can be just as detrimental as physical or sexual abuse.
Researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee evaluated the impact of verbal abuse on the mental health of more than 5,600 people, aged 15-54. Thirty percent of the participants admitted that their parents verbally abused them sporadically and frequently during their childhoods.
Repeated verbal abuse—belittling, shaming or threatening a child—from parents can contribute to depression and anxiety that lasts well into adulthood. Natalie Sachs-Ericsson, FSU professor and author of the study, said that people who’d been verbally abused as children had 1.6 times as many symptoms of depression and anxiety as those who had not been. They were also twice as likely to have suffered a mood or anxiety disorder in their lifetime.
The verbal abuse triggers poor self-esteem that continues into adulthood and allows symptoms of anxiety and depression to settle, the researchers found. They added that therapy offers hope; self-critical people can benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, an approach that helps individuals identify their irrational thought patterns and replace them with more rational thoughts.
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