Adults shouting at children can be as harmful as sexual or physical abuse, says study

A new study found that shouting at children can be just as harmful as sexual and physical abuse.

Research published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, which reviewed 166 earlier studies, produces a detailed analysis on the topic.

The study's authors say that it could be recognised as its own form of abuse while claiming the behaviour involves, ‘adult-to-child perpetration of verbal abuse … is characterised by shouting, yelling, denigrating the child, and verbal threats’.

They added that such behaviour could severely impact a child’s development.

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

The paper added that around 40 per cent of children experience this form of abuse.

Unfortunately, a further 10 per cent said verbal aggression was a daily experience for them.

Professor Dube said this needs to be addressed as adults are clueless regarding the power of their words and tone.

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“Often adults are unaware of how their shouting tone and criticising words, such as ‘stupid’ and ‘lazy’, can negatively impact children, particularly if that is how they experienced being parented,” she said, as per The Guardian.

The study concluded that when adults such as a guardian, teacher or coach shout at a child, it could have detrimental physiological effects, including depression, anxiety, anger or low self-esteem.

It could also lead to external symptoms, such as committing crimes, substance or perpetrating abuse, and adverse physical health outcomes, such as developing obesity or lung disease.

Similarly, a 2013 study by Ming-Te Wang, assistant professor of psychology in education at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education and Psychology, found harsh verbal disciplines for kids can cause depressive symptoms and increase the likelihood of behavioural problems such as vandalism or antisocial and aggressiveness.

The research also found that negative verbal discipline effects within two years were comparable to children who endured physical discipline in this time period as well.

“From that we can infer that these results will last the same way that the effects of physical discipline do because the immediate-to-two-year effects of verbal discipline were about the same as for physical discipline,” said Professor Ming-Te Wang, lead author of the study.

So, next time, a simple 'time-out' will do.