Study: Shouting at kids is as harmful as physical abuse

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Researchers say shouting at children can be as damaging as physical or sexual abuse.

The new study shining light on this says yelling at a child can result in depression. It can lead them to commit crimes. It can cause them to struggle with substance abuse. And it can lead to poor physical health.

And it doesn’t matter who’s doing it -- parents, teachers, coaches, or anyone else.

Scientists looked at 166 earlier studies to reach this conclusion. They want verbal abuse to be acknowledged as its own abuse subtype.

Right now, child maltreatment is classified as either physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect. Verbal abuse falls within the emotional abuse subtype.

Experts also say the first rule of yelling is to refrain from critique while doing it -- such as calling the child stupid or useless.

The study was just published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect. A portion of the study is available at Science Direct.

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