Impact of Verbal and Psychological Abuse on Child and Adolescent Development

Verbal and Psychological Abuse: Impact of Verbal and Psychological Abuse on Child and Adolescent Development
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November 11, 2017
Introduction
In every corner of this world, the issue of abuse has been one of the most apparent and most persisting problems that people experience. As of today, it could be said that this issue has been mitigated a lot, especially due to the intense efforts provided by individuals, groups, and institutions in response to the dire consequences that abuse (in any form) could inflict to the victims and even to the general society at large. According to ReachMa.org (2017), the six types of abuse are; (1) physical, (2) sexual, (3) verbal/emotional, (4) Mental/psychological, (5) financial/economic, (6) Cultural/identity. In this article, however, the further focus would be on the verbal/emotional aspect of abuse as experienced by millions of people around the world. In most cases, this is the type of abuse, which goes unnoticed, since its effects are less apparent in the victims. However, for people what most of us fail to notice is that this is also one of the most severe types of abuse since it leaves a latent but long-lasting (even permanent) damage to an individual that experiences it. In a study done in the effects of abuse to young individuals, it was found that the effects of verbal and psychological abuse is much greater for a child and an adolescent, especially because this is the stage where they are most vulnerable to these kinds of attacks (Al Odhayani, Watson, & Watson, 2013). However, what makes this more severe is the fact that abuse is not only experienced by the child from his/her peers but at times even from parents/guardians, who are supposed to guide them in their development. In this article, the author would focus on a discussion of the effects of verbal and psychological abuse to children and adolescents. This discussion would focus on both the analysis of this type of abuse from (1) the parents/guardians and (2) peer groups (bullying). Lastly, this article would also try to expound on the effects of “cyberbullying” for children and adolescents today. The author believes that this is important because a large part of verbal and psychological abuse (bullying) happens through social media and other digital forms of communication, with statistics saying that 1 out of 3 teenaged kids who uses social media has been bullied and received “cyberthreats” online. Nonetheless, the author of this article believes that while abuse from the parents would have a much different effect on the individual as compared to those coming from peer groups, both of them could have a permanent and detrimental effect on the child/adolescent’s well-being.
Definition of Terms and Scope of Limitations
In this article the author would employ the definition of Childhood and Adolescent as used by Erikson is his Psychosocial Theory. This would include both the stages of preschool (3-5 years), school age (6-12 years), and adolescent (12 to 18 years) (David, 2014). Individuals in this stage are considered to be most vulnerable to any kind of abuse, but most especially in terms of psychological and verbal ones. In fact, it is said these types are one of the three most persistent types of abuse in bullying, which includes verbal, psychological, and physical (Ronald, n.d.). On one hand, Verbal abuse was defined by Patricelli (2005), as the use of words, phrases, and even body language which are aimed at hurting and/or inappropriately criticizing another person. On the other hand, she defined psychological abuse as the control exerted by an individual towards the availability of information for the victim in order to “manipulate that person's sense of reality; what is acceptable and what is not acceptable” (Patricelli, 2005). Both of these would be included and further discussed in the succeeding sections of this analysis. Lastly, Bullying is defined as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance” (StopBullying.Gov, 2017). Bullying could also be further narrowed down in terms of the types of “aggressive behavior” employed by the bullies, with verbal bullying, including acts such as name-calling, teasing, and taunting, while psychological bullying including acts of blackmailing, intimidation, and even cyberbullying.
Verbal and Psychological Abuse from Parents/Guardians
One of the most heavily debated aspects of abuse when it comes to child-rearing is defining what abuse is relative to the cultural traditions of a society. More particularly, these cultural-specific patterns of child-rearing have been one of the most controversial topics in terms of child abuse because what might seem as abusive for some cultures might not exactly be seen as such in another (Bornstein, 1991). A good example of this type of duality would be the difference between Western and Eastern Standards of child rearing and control. In the United States, spanking and badmouthing is considered to be abusive in the sense that policies have even been established to mitigate these behaviors from the parents. However, in countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, and China, among others, spanking and use of bad words are considered to be normal as long as it is within acceptable limits (e.g. not inflicting grave injuries and permanent marks). Nevertheless, contrary to what the western perspective thinks about the use of intense physical and verbal means of rearing the child, children in the East are not exactly those how would experience psychological abuse or other types of emotional repercussions, because in the first place they know exactly what the is the purpose of acts like this. Now, this poses the question, if child rearing is relative, what would be considered as abusive and not, especially in terms of the verbal and psychological aspects of it. According to Pingleton (2014), while speaking might be an effective way to rear a child, there still “is a giant chasm between a mild spanking properly administered out of love and an out-of-control adult venting their emotions by physically abusing a child”. On the darker side of the spectrum, excessive verbal and psychological abuse as administered by the parents is said to damage a “child’s esteem as well as foster hatred and fear” (Heitler, 2014). The main reason as to why verbal and psychological abuses are much more frequent is because the guidelines set to prevent excessive abuse only tackle permanents and manifest marks that are left by physical abuse. Thus, many parents and/or guardians up to these days provide sanctions for children either by calling them hurtful names, badmouthing, or even create a “negative environment” where they could manipulate the child through different methods.
In another study done about the effects of parent’s verbal abuse towards their adolescent children, it was found out that teenagers are much more vulnerable even compared to children when it comes to verbal abuse. This is because adolescence is the stage in a person’s life where personalities begin to develop, and these personalities are almost always that ones that a child would carry into adulthood. To further this idea about the devastating effects of verbal abuse to adolescents, the University of Calgary, has conducted a study comparing the effects of verbal abuse with that of physical abuse in specific cases of parental abuse. According to the results of the study, verbal abuse is much more severe in the sense that it creates a lifelong trauma that is usually characterized by feelings of worthlessness, anger, pain, confusion, and even to the extremes which are the physical manifestations of these emotional damages (e.g. anorexia and bulimia) (SecureTeen.com, 2013).
In the cases posted above, it could be seen that while the rules and guidelines set by specific cultures on child rearing could very differently, a huge gap still exist in between what is considered as corrective and abusive. In the latter sense, studies have found out that verbal and psychological abuse almost always have a longer lasting effect on the child as compared to the physical abuse that he experiences. However, what is alarming with this is that most of the time, parents do not intend to elicit this kind of damage, and only does this while ignorant of the fact that these have more severe effects. According to LaBier (2015), some examples of psychological abuse that we fail to notice are indifference, humiliation, denigration, neglect, and unrelenting pressure. Nevertheless, while these are being mitigated today through campaigns and other educational materials showing these damages, it is undeniable that these days bullying from peers is still one of the greatest issues that are left unresolved.
Bullying and Abuse from Peer Groups
In a study done by Brito and Oliveira (2013), they found out that from their sample of “237 students in the ninth grade of middle school from public schools participating in the School Health Program in the city of Olinda (PE)”, about 67.5% of them are bullied and/or has experienced being bullied at more than one point in their high school lives. In their findings, they found out that some of the most common effects in these cases are low self-esteem. In other studies done regarding the same subject matter, it was found out that other effects could include
fear and anxiety, depression, stress and PTSD, intrusive memories, memory gap disorders, sleep or eating problems, hyper-vigilance and exaggerated startle responses, irritability, anger issues, alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, self-mutilation, and assaultive behaviors (Holly, 2017)
By simply looking at the list provided above, it could easily be seen that bullying is a matter that should be prevented at all cost. In a recent study done by Yale University, the likelihood for a bullied victim to consider suicide increases up to 7% to 9% (NOBullying.com, 2016). In another study done by ABC News, an astounding number of more than 30,000 children does not want to go to school and rather stay at home due to fear of being bullied.
In retrospect to Erikson’s stages of development, he describes the stages of life that a person goes through as well as the kinds of “crisis” that an individual must be able to resolve in each of them. Aside from this he also describes the most significant figures in a child’s life which changes as they grow up. In the case of school-aged children (6 to 12 years) and adolescents (12 to 18 years), he pointed out that individuals in this stage of life usually find their peers as very significant in influencing the decisions that he makes as well as his development (David, 2014). The phase for Industry vs. Inferiority (School-aged children), is the phase when children gradually shift their “authority figures” from their parents towards their peers. As they reach adolescence, individuals now create stronger bonds to who they think they are as well as their friends who they affiliate themselves with. In line with our topic of bullying, it could be said that what makes bullying much detrimental is the fact that it could lead to a sense of inferiority for school-aged children or even role confusion for adolescents. However, what is surprising with regards to this topic is the fact that the relationship between bullying and is not unidirectional. Rather even the act of bullying is something which is related to the stage of Identity vs. role confusion, among other external factors, such as parent’s child-rearing practices during the Industry vs. Inferiority phase of life. Oth...