Child Abuse: Emotional Abuse Might Hurt Just As Much As Neglect

Emotional trauma can be just as harmful as neglect or even physical abuse, in some cases.

New findings published in JAMA Psychiatry examine how different types or patterns of abuse relating to emotional and physical pain actually activate similar parts of the brain.Though many assume that physical abuse would be more harmful than other types of abuse, researchers found that they were both associated with similar consequences.

The researchers used data from a study by Dante Cicchetti (University of Minnesota) and Fred Rogosch (University of Rochester) that was conducted through Mt. Hope Family Center. Cicchetti and Rogoshhad been running a summer research camp for over 20 years, studying low-income, school-aged children between the ages of 5-13. Close to half of the campers also had a well-documented history of child maltreatment.

Camp counselors were not aware of which children had been abused. Meanwhile, the researchers used various types of child-, peer-, and counselor-reports to help determine psychiatric and behavioral problems in the children--including a total of 2,300 racially and ethnically diverse girls and boys.

"We also tested other assumptions about child maltreatment," said David Vachon, a McGill professor in the Department of Psychology and the study's first author, in a news release, "including the belief that each type of abuse has specific consequences, and the belief that the abuse has different consequences for boys and girls of different races."

However, researchers found many commonly held assumptions might be wrong. In fact, Vachon noted that "...different types of child abuse have equivalent, broad and universal effects."

The researchers are hopeful that the study may change how clinicians and the public look at child abuse.

"One implication," added Vachon, "is that effective treatments for maltreatment of any sort are likely to have comprehensive benefits. Another implication is that prevention strategies should emphasize emotional abuse, a widespread cruelty that is far less punishable than other types of child maltreatment."

Next, researchers how to examine if abuse changes personality, itself.

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