Shouting at Children Can Be Just as Harmful as Physical and Sexual Abuse, New Study Finds

Yelling at children can cause just as much lifelong damage as physical and sexual abuse, a new study has found.

Researchers in Britain and North Carolina discovered that adults who shout at children can scar them just as badly as being beaten or molested.

Whether it comes from parents, relatives, teachers or coaches, verbal shaming and threats can lead to depression, criminal activity, substance abuse and obesity, said the study recently in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

The work reviewed 166 published studies and produced a copious analysis of what is known about the damaging effects of screaming at young people.

The study was commissioned by Words Matter, a British group seeking to bolster the self-worth of children by wiping out verbal abuse.

It was completed by researchers at North Carolina's Wingate University and staff at University College London.

'It’s paramount to grasp the true scale and impact of childhood verbal abuse. 

"Words have weight. They can uplift or destroy," said Jessica Bondy, the founder of Words Matter. "Let’s build children up, not knock them down."

Currently, child abuse is divided into four categories: physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect. And though emotional mistreatment can include verbal abuse, the latter deserves its own category, researchers determined.

“Childhood verbal abuse desperately needs to be acknowledged as an abuse subtype because of the lifelong negative consequences,” said professor Shanta Dube, lead author of the study and director of Wingate's  Master of Public Health Program.

The study also noted that more research is needed to determine which age groups are most traumatized by being verbally abused.

 "All adults get overloaded and sometimes say things unintentionally," Bondy said.

"We have to work collectively to devise ways to recognize these actions and end childhood verbal abuse by adults, so children can flourish," Bondy said.

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