729
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Parents who shout at their children or call them “stupid” are leaving their offspring at greater risk of self-harm, drug use and ending up in jail, new research claims.

Talking harshly to children should be recognised as a form of abuse because of the huge damage it does, experts say.

The authors of a new study into such behaviour say “adult-to-child perpetration of verbal abuse … is characterised by shouting, yelling, denigrating the child, and verbal threats”.

“These types of adult actions can be as damaging to a child’s development as other currently recognised and forensically established subtypes of mistreatment such as childhood physical and sexual abuse,” the academics say in their paper in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 234 points 1 year ago

My first girlfriend in highschool had severe anxiety and was so incredibly quiet and shy. It was so tough cuz she was a genuinely sweet and caring person once she opened up to you. I was extremely surprised to learn her family was nothing like that when I met them. Until I met her dad, and he kept calling her an idiot, and stupid, and useless. Then I understood why she never wanted to say anything. Every time she opened her mouth she was criticized by her dad. This attitude towards your own kids is insanely damaging.

[-] li10@feddit.uk 87 points 1 year ago

It’s very difficult to notice that it’s happening to you sometimes.

It wasn’t until my mid twenties that I noticed every single thing I say my mother seems to instantly try to take the opposite side and tell me I’m wrong, purely because it’s in her nature.

That level of negativity combined with a hair trigger for screaming, and she wonders why I don’t talk to her about absolutely anything 🤷‍♂️

[-] aceshigh@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

frog in a boiling pot.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Honestly, I think that type of abuse is the worst because it cuts way deeper and leaves a permanent mark. I was yelled at (a lot), physically abused, and sexually abused, but I was always encouraged and supported. (Weird, I know. No, I'm not getting into it.). Because of the verbal support I received from my mother I was confident enough to stand up to my sexual and physical abusers even though she had not been able to as a child. I was also strong enough to break away from them and take on life solo after completely cutting them all off from my life (my mother had already passed away).

If you believe in yourself, you can fight. If you don't, you might just sit there and take it. Psychological abuse is the cruelest and most damaging.

[-] treefrog@lemm.ee 30 points 1 year ago

My anxiety also came from living with an abusive father. It sucks always second guessing yourself and never feeling safe and secure because your baseline is abuse.

EMDR helped me. I hope your ex found or finds some healing.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I think an important thing parents need to do (apart from tearing down their kids for no reason) is differentiate DOING something dumb versus BEING dumb.

A comment my dad made long ago when I was young kinda stuck with me "For a kid who's really smart you sure do some really dumb shit sometimes"

I've tried to phrase things like that to my kids, not "you dumbass why did you do that?" but more along "you're smart enough to know you shouldn't do that, so why did you?"

[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago

I don't have a better solution, but “you’re smart enough to know you shouldn’t do that, so why did you?” feels a lot like the "you're smart but you don't apply yourself" I got a lot as a kid that always made me feel inadequate.

I fucked up sometimes, I didn't do it on purpose and asking me why I did it as if I consciously made a decision to be wrong on purpose and wanting an explanation is basically asking me to either lie or say "i don't know" which was never the "right answer."

[-] phx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

More about analysing the thinking that led to the situation. In most cases it's things that they know or were told not to do but guy caught up in the moment

[-] Sodis@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

Or you could use positive reinforcement instead of belittling your kids. You can explain, why stuff they did was wrong without calling them dumb. They are kids after all, they don't know stuff, have a lot to learn and it is hard for them to completely grasp the consequences of their actions.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

And this is belittling then, how?

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

He didn't call them dumb he called their actions dumb. Wow u missed the entire point of his post.

[-] Sodis@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Just read the other comment strain, where people argue, that exactly this parenting fucked them up. Positive reinforcement is the go to parenting style.

this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
729 points (95.2% liked)

News

23409 readers
1788 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS