Verbal Abuse in Childhood May Lead to Depression in Adulthood

A study by Florida State University in 2006 revealed that people who were verbally abused as children grow up to be self-critical adults more susceptible to developing mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.

According to Natalie Sachs-Ericsson, study lead author and psychology professor, people who were verbally abused had 1.6 times as many symptoms of depression and anxiety as those who had not been and were twice as likely to have suffered a mood or anxiety disorder during the course of their lifetime.

"We must try to educate parents about the long-term effects of verbal abuse on their children," Sachs-Ericsson said. "The old saying about sticks and stones was wrong. Names will forever hurt you."

The study was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

The researchers studied data from 5,614 people ages 15 to 54. The average age of the ethnically diverse sample was 33.

The findings carried significant implications for clinical treatment. Research has shown self-critical people can benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy, an approach that helps people identify their irrational thought patterns and replace them with more rational thoughts, Sachs-Ericsson said. In addition, they are taught new behaviors to deal with uncomfortable situations.

The shockingly high percentage of study participants, who reported that they were sometimes or often verbally abused by a parent, was nearly 30 percent. Verbal abuse included insults, swearing, threats of physical abuse and spiteful comments or gestures.

Understanding the reasoning behind such treatment, Sachs-Ericsson believed it may largely be due to parents having learned such style of parenting from their own parents, or they simply may be unaware of positive ways to motivate or discipline their children. They may also have a psychiatric or personality disorder that interferes with their parenting abilities.

Problems begin when over time, children start to believe the negative things they hear and they initiate using such negative statements as explanations for anything that goes wrong. For instance, a child who does not get invited to a party or does poorly on a test will think the reason is because he or she is no good if that is the message conveyed by a parent. This pattern of self-criticism continues into adulthood and has been shown to make an individual more prone to depression and anxiety. Feelings of degradation and worthlessness overpower their self-esteem and sense of confidence.

To assess self-criticism, researchers asked participants to respond to statements such as, "I dwell on my mistakes more than I should," and "There is a considerable difference between how I am now and how I would like to be." Those who had been verbally abused were noticed to be more self-critical than those who were not.

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