Psychological child abuse is the non-physical abuse of a child through words, intimidation, manipulation, and withholding. It can harm a child emotionally, mentally, and socially, and is often harder to detect than physical abuse. Signs include aggression, passivity, eagerness to please, and delayed development.
Psychological child abuse is the mental or emotional abuse of a child. With this type of abuse, the abuser does not hit or otherwise physically harm his or her child victim. Instead, use words, intimidation, manipulation and withholding things that the child needs or wants to abuse him. Indeed, acts such as withholding affection from a child and isolating them from those who love them can also be considered child abuse. Unfortunately, psychological child abuse is often much harder to detect than abuse of a physical nature, but many mental health experts agree that it is just as scarring.
When a child is experiencing psychological abuse, they will have no physical scars to show, but that doesn’t mean the abuse isn’t harming them. When a child is psychologically abused, he is damaged emotionally or mentally. In some cases, the abuse can even harm his social development. Without physical evidence, a child is often at the mercy of their abuser for some time before anyone notices and informs the authorities. In fact, many cases are never discovered and some children spend their entire childhood suffering from this type of abuse.
There are many types of psychological child abuse, including verbal abuse, such as belittling and name calling; intimidation; and isolation. Bullying or threats, as well as rejection and shaming a child, are often part of this type of abuse. Likewise, withholding affection can be hurtful. Some abusers even ignore or refuse to communicate with a child to abuse them. Additionally, this type of child abuse includes encouraging a child to participate in criminal activity, take drugs, or perform acts considered self-destructive.
Since there are no physical signs to indicate psychological child abuse, concerned loved ones, mental health experts, social workers, and legal authorities are looking for other ways to identify victims. Some symptoms that may indicate such a problem include patterns of being too aggressive or abnormally passive. Children who seem too eager to please or act more like adults than children may suffer from psychological or other abuse. Some victims of this type of abuse even act as if they are much younger than they really are or seem too demanding. Additionally, some may appear to be withdrawn or experience delays in their physical, mental and emotional development – even suicide attempts can indicate psychological abuse of minors.
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