Emotional Abuse

Sign, symptoms and effects

Find out more about the signs, symptoms and effects of emotional abuse:

Spotting the signs

What is emotional abuse?

Emotional abuse – The persistent emotional maltreatment of a child so as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development.

• It may involve conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person
• It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them, or making fun of what they say or how they communicate
• It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond a child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction
• It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another
• It may involve serious bullying (including cyber bullying), causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children.
• Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.

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