Parents who shout at their children or call them “stupid” are leaving their offspring at greater risk of self-harm, drug use and ending up in jail, new research claims.

Talking harshly to children should be recognised as a form of abuse because of the huge damage it does, experts say.

The authors of a new study into such behaviour say “adult-to-child perpetration of verbal abuse … is characterised by shouting, yelling, denigrating the child, and verbal threats”.

“These types of adult actions can be as damaging to a child’s development as other currently recognised and forensically established subtypes of mistreatment such as childhood physical and sexual abuse,” the academics say in their paper in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

  • Raine_Wolf@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Unfortunately, both my parents are like that too. I went no contact for that reason, actually.

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It is possible to get closure anyway, eg. by not doing the same mistake yourself or by surrouding yourself with healthy relationships and realizing your parent is just a human being full of faults and you're your own person. I have examples around me of people who were able to get over it finally and also of people who carried it with them their whole life (and I don't blame them). The sad thing is how many people have such burden in the first place.