Verbal Childhood Abuse and Effects in

their Adult Life

Mireya Ahumada
Salt Lake Community College

Verbal child abuse may seem like it's something that does not happen often, little do we
know that it seems to be a big problem. 63% of most American parents reported causing verbal

aggression towards their own children in the household. At times many people do not realize that
they are causing verbal aggression towards their children. Many of the times this happens
because of the tight scheduling that families have to crunch in. A lot of the times when a person
is abusing of child verbally, the abuser never had wanted to do it intentionally. That is something
that should be alarming to parents and something we all need to watch out for.
Alongside this essay well be reviewing on the questions of; Am I emotionally hurting my
child without myself knowing? What impact is there on an adult who has gone through child
verbal abuse? Do we have sufficient evidence to get to a logical conclusion that works for
everyone? Some people may be lead to believe that its only child abuse if there's physical
contact. Others believe contrary to this belief. Let us analyze together.
For the articles that the information was obtained from, it did not have one specific set of
studies conducted. The information was obtained by various conducted studies summarized into
one. Many of the study groups had about 40 people. Two different groups having both genders,
female and male included with different ethnicities. Having a controlled group.
The article from Neuroimaging From Child Abuse: A Critical Review, had various studies
done. It focused primarily on the brain activity that went on in adults that had either
maltreatment in their childhood versus adults who did not have maltreatment in their childhood.
What the study found was that early child abuse many cause some commonly behavioral
consequences like; limit stress tolerance, anxiety, depression, suicidality, posttraumatic stress
disorders etc. And some behavioral symptoms like; poor impulse control, episodic aggression,
substance abuse, ADHD, and CD. The study also concluded on low IQ possibilities, with specific
deficits in language, memory and inhibition.

Since the child brain is still not fully developed, this causes effects of gray and white
matter in the brain, as was shown in the brain MRI. The gray and white matter develops up until
past the age of 20. If it is affected, or disrupted by damage to the white matter, it can end up in a
disturbance of normal brain function. If this happens. It can affect the following specific brain
regions; hippocampus, corpus callosum, cerebellum, and amygdala. The cognitive changes that it
can specifically cause are; limited stress tolerance, anxiety, depression, suicidality, and post
traumatic stress disorder. Including behavioral problems such as; poor impulse control, episodic
aggression, substance abuse, conduct disorders and ADHD.
A study from Florida State University found what was more common to happen when
verbally abused. That Adults who were verbally abused as children tended to be self critical
adults prone to anxiety and depression.
There have been various MRI done for the knowledge of gray and white matter and how
it affects growing into adulthood from previous verbal abuse in childhood, but there are
limitations. Up to this day investigators are still looking for ways to be able to comprehend
certain brain activity and the areas that are affected by this specific childhood maltreatment
What has surprised me from my investigations was that just because someone may have
gone through childhood maltreatment, they are not necessarily going to be affected by that in
adulthood. It depends on their personality and how well they are able to handle things. I also
wonder if soon enough we would be able to look into further detail how verbal child abuse
affects the brain activity.
References

Hart, H., & Rubia, K. (2012, March 19). Neuroimaging Child Abuse: A Critical Review.
A Critical Review. Retrieved December 02, 2016, from
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00052/full#h1
Invisible scars: Verbal abuse triggers adult anxiety, depression. (n.d.). Retrieved
December 05, 2016, from https://www.fsu.edu/news/2006/05/22/invisible.scars/
Sachs-Ericsson, N., Verona, E., Joiner, T., & Preacher, K. J. (2006, July). Parental Verbal
Abuse and the Mediating Role of Self-Criticism in Adult Internalizing Disorders. Journal of
Affective Disorders,93(1-3), 71-78. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.jadjournal.com/article/S0165-0327(06)00091-7/abstract
Vardigan, B. (2016, January 20). HealthDay. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from
https://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/children-s-health-10/child-development-news124/yelling-at-children-verbal-abuse-648565.html