Verbal violence during childhood is as harmful to mental health as physical abuse

Effects of life. A study conducted in more than 20,600 people living in England and Wales shows that violence and verbal cruelty during childhood have effects similar to physical abuse in a person and their discomfort during their adult life.

The results of this study, published on Tuesday, August 5 in the open newspaper of BMJ and assumed by the American Media CNN, indicate that a person who has suffered verbal violence with 60% more likely to suffer from poor mental health.

“The results suggest that verbal violence in childhood can leave scars on mental health as deep and sustainable as those caused by physical violence,” said the main study of the study, Dr. Mark Bellis, Professor of Public Health and Behavioral Sciences at the John Moores University in Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

A link between violence and mental health

According to this study, a person who has not undergone any physical or verbal violence during his childhood has a 16% chance of presenting poor mental health. A victim of physical violence has a probability that 22.4% of the discomfort once adult. A figure that increases to 23.8% for victims of verbal violence.

Finally, a person exposed to verbal and physical violence during his childhood sees his chances of being subject to an increased adult life, that is, 29.1%.

Specifically, research shows that the more a person is exposed to violence during his childhood, whether physical or verbal, the more he is lucky during his adult life of “never or rarely feel optimistic”, “never or rarely feel useful” or “never or rarely feel relaxed.”

Verbal cruelty towards children increasing

A significant observation, because if physical violence in children has been reduced by half, from 20% in people born between 1950 and 1979 to 10% in those born in 2000 or later, verbal cruelty, on the other hand, increased. 11.9% for people born before 1950, this figure increased to almost 20% for people born in 2000.

Therefore, researchers alert to the prevention of childhood violence and believe that the fight against violence against children must also understand verbal cruelty and not only corporal punishment.

The study calls to take into account the consequences of verbal violence in the worsening of the health problems of the people in question.