Parents who yell and threaten their teenage children may put them at a great risk of mental illnesses, a new study suggests.
"The take home point is that the verbal behaviors matter," said Annette Mahoney who worked on the study. Mahoney is a professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. "It can be easy to overlook that, but our study shows that the verbal hostility is really relevant, particularly for mothers who scream and hit, and for fathers who do either one." All the kids involved in the study were referred to a community clinic due to mental health or behavioral problems. The researchers involved in the study believe that parents are trapped in a vicious cycle. "Verbal abuse has a cyclical nature to it," said Mahoney and kids with mental health problems may be tough to handle.
Her team found out that adolescents whose parents were also physically violent toward them had a much greater risk for mental illness and behavioral problems. "Parental verbal aggression towards adolescents is just as - if not more - destructive than physical aggression, particularly in families seeking mental health services," said Michelle Leroy, also of Bowling Green State University and lead author of the study.
Their study, which was published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, looked at 239 troubled adolescents between the age of 11 and 18. They were asked to fill out surveys that questioned whether or not they were hit, were called names or were subjected to other forms of physical or verbal violence over the past year. The results of the study may indicate that doctors should be on the lookout for verbal aggression at home, particularly in families with an adolescent who may be suffering from mental health or behavioral problems.
