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.

  • 1D10@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Not just yelling at kids, just being in a house where people are verbally abusive can fuck a person up, if my parents were not yelling at each other they were yelling at one of us kids. to the day 30 some odd years later just being around someone who is pissed off triggers my anxiety.

    • Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      i really feel that about being around someone who is pissed off. i also get little adrenaline rushes whenever anyone shuts a door forcefully

      • SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        I also get adrenaline rushes and instinctively angry when loud noises that can be avoided, happen.

        I have also developed (without going for it) some very good stealth skills and I am not an especially tiny person.

        I also grew up with a fairly short temper, though I wonder if it's genetics or the upbringing. Learned over time I can control it, but the berserker rage is still there.