Subscribe
The latest psychology and neuroscience discoveries.
My Account
  • Mental Health
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Neuroscience
  • About
No Result
View All Result
PsyPost
PsyPost
No Result
View All Result
Home Exclusive Mental Health Anxiety

Verbal abuse changes how children’s brains develop, increasing risk of anxiety and depression

by Eamon McCrory
June 5, 2025
in Anxiety, Depression, Early Life Adversity and Childhood Maltreatment
[Adobe Stock]

[Adobe Stock]

Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
Follow PsyPost on Google News

Harsh words can wound – and when directed at children, they can have a lifelong impact.

Research has shown that when words are routinely used by the adults in their lives to humiliate, shame or control children, they can alter the developing brain. A 2023 study of over 20,500 UK adults found that one in five reported having been verbally abused as children.

Definitions of verbal abuse vary, but it is generally characterised by a sustained pattern of behaviour where criticism, threats or rejection of the child leads them to feel routinely belittled, blamed, threatened, frightened or ridiculed. This is not the same as occasionally losing your temper with your children and saying something hurtful in the heat of the moment.

I and colleagues believe this shapes how a child sees the world, others, and themselves. Exposure to abuse, including verbal abuse, leads to an increased risk of anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and drug use in later life.

It has an impact on forming trusting relationships as an adult. Yet despite its devastating consequences, verbal abuse remains largely overlooked in public debate and policy.

Preventing verbal abuse – along with all forms of child abuse and neglect – is more than just a moral imperative. It is essential for healthy brain development and lifelong wellbeing.

Changes in the brain

I was among the experts brought together by Jessica Bondy, founder of the Words Matter charity, in the House of Commons in April 2025 to discuss the prevention of childhood verbal abuse.

As a neuroscientist, I have spent decades using brain imaging to understand how early adversity and trauma, including verbal abuse, can shape a young person’s development. We now know that emotional abuse, including consistently hostile or demeaning language from adults, can significantly alter the way a child’s brain perceives and reacts to the world.

Several key brain systems are affected. For example, our threat system normally helps us stay safe by detecting danger and triggering a quick response – the well-known “fight or flight” reaction.

But in children subjected to frequent abuse, including verbal abuse, this system becomes hyperactive. Even neutral social cues – a facial expression, or a joke or well-meaning comment – can be misinterpreted as threatening.

Verbal abuse also affects how children form relationships. In healthy development, warm verbal and non-verbal exchanges with caregivers – praise, compliments, thoughtful understanding – help teach children how to establish secure and healthy relationships. They also help them build self-worth and social confidence.

But verbal abuse, along with other forms of childhood maltreatment, can blunt the brain’s reward system. The brain becomes less responsive to positive experiences.

We believe that these brain adaptations can alter how a maltreated child builds their social world. They may help the child survive in an adverse social environment, but over time they accrue long-term costs. It becomes harder to trust others; harder to navigate relationships; harder to believe you are of real value and truly lovable.

Lifelong consequences

By adulthood, the risk is that a repeated cycle of interpersonal stress and rupture is established. Romantic relationships can be destabilised by deep-seated fears of abandonment or rejection.

Those early wounds fold into our sense of self, creating an enduring lens through which the world is perceived. It can be a struggle to feel at ease in one own’s mind, or safe in the mind of another.

In addition to my research work at UCL, I am CEO of Anna Freud, a charity dedicated to transforming mental health support through evidence-based care, cutting-edge research, professional training and accessible resources. In our clinical work at Anna Freud, we have seen countless young people and adults struggle with the verbal messages they have received growing up.

Harsh language sticks because we are biologically wired to privilege negative and threatening information for our own protection. These verbal wounds underpin so much later anxiety, pain and distress. Adults can spend decades trying to compensate to prove those words wrong.

We need to shine a light on the impact of verbal abuse, helping parents, carers, teachers and all adults in a child’s life understand the power of their words. This does not imply that poor behaviour should go unchecked; children still need clear limits and honest corrective feedback. However, it does mean creating environments – at home, at school, in communities – where children are spoken to with respect, encouragement and care.

Verbal abuse is not an inevitable part of growing up. It is preventable. And the science is clear: ending it is essential to safeguarding healthy brain development and improving life-long mental health outcomes. Society as a whole will benefit, with a new generation more likely to thrive in education and employment.

We need to ensure every child is nurtured by words that build them up, not tear them down.The Conversation

 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

TweetSendScanShareSendPin3ShareShareShareShareShare

RELATED

Ketamine repairs reward circuitry to reverse stress-induced anhedonia
Anxiety

Virtual reality meditation eases caregiver anxiety during pediatric hospital stays, with stronger benefits for Spanish speakers

July 9, 2025

Researchers at Stanford found that a six-minute guided meditation delivered through a VR headset lowered anxiety levels in parents of hospitalized children. The intervention outperformed standard relaxation methods, with Spanish-speaking caregivers experiencing the greatest benefit.

Read moreDetails
Ketamine repairs reward circuitry to reverse stress-induced anhedonia
Depression

Ketamine repairs reward circuitry to reverse stress-induced anhedonia

July 9, 2025

New research shows a single low, non-anesthetic dose of ketamine revived pleasure seeking in chronically stressed mice by restoring weakened excitatory synapses onto nucleus accumbens dopamine D1 neurons, pinpointing a circuit mechanism for the drug’s rapid antidepressant effect.

Read moreDetails
Psychedelic drug DOI activates specific brain neurons to ease anxiety
Depression

Choline imbalance in the brain linked to with cognitive symptoms in young depression patients

July 8, 2025

Researchers have identified metabolic differences in the brains of young adults with depression who also experience cognitive impairment. The study sheds light on how chemical imbalances in key brain regions may contribute to thinking and memory problems in depression.

Read moreDetails
Heightened anxiety linked to an impaired ability to simulate alternative versions of past events
Anxiety

New research reveals emotional control deficits in generalized anxiety disorder

July 7, 2025

A new study suggests that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder have difficulty focusing on relevant emotional information and shifting attention between emotional tasks, highlighting impairments in affective control that may contribute to chronic anxiety symptoms.

Read moreDetails
Study links internalized racism to increased suicidal thoughts in Asian Americans
Depression

Breakfast habits are associated with depressive symptoms, study finds

July 6, 2025

Researchers found that young people in Hong Kong who regularly skip breakfast reported more depressive symptoms and lower attention control. The findings point to a subtle link between morning habits and emotional well-being.

Read moreDetails
Feminine advantage in harm perception obscures male victimization
Depression

People with depression face significantly greater social and health-related challenges

July 5, 2025

New findings reveal that depression is linked to both greater social hardship and increased frailty. People with depression were significantly more likely to report unmet basic needs and physical vulnerability, suggesting a complex relationship between social conditions and mental health.

Read moreDetails
Shared genetic factors uncovered between ADHD and cannabis addiction
Developmental Psychology

Genetic factors may influence how well exercise buffers against childhood trauma

July 3, 2025

A new study suggests exercise can reduce the psychological toll of childhood adversity, but its benefits are not universal. Researchers found that a person’s genetic makeup, specifically a variant in the BDNF gene, can influence how effectively physical activity buffers against trauma.

Read moreDetails
Underweight individuals are at an increased risk of suicide, study finds
Depression

Subjective cognitive struggles strongly linked to social recovery in depression

July 3, 2025

In people with major depression, subjective feelings of cognitive dysfunction—rather than performance on cognitive tests—strongly predicted emotional symptoms and social functioning. The findings suggest that what patients think about their own thinking may be key to long-term recovery.

Read moreDetails

SUBSCRIBE

Go Ad-Free! Click here to subscribe to PsyPost and support independent science journalism!

STAY CONNECTED

LATEST

New study links why people use pornography to day-to-day couple behavior

Virtual reality meditation eases caregiver anxiety during pediatric hospital stays, with stronger benefits for Spanish speakers

Fascinating new advances in psychedelic science reveal how they may heal the mind

Dysfunction within the sensory processing cortex of the brain is associated with insomnia, study finds

Prenatal exposure to “forever chemicals” linked to autistic traits in children, study finds

Ketamine repairs reward circuitry to reverse stress-induced anhedonia

Neuroscientists decode how people juggle multiple items in working memory

Inside the bored brain: Unlocking the power of the default mode network

         
       
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms and Conditions
[Do not sell my information]

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Cognitive Science Research
  • Mental Health Research
  • Social Psychology Research
  • Drug Research
  • Relationship Research
  • About PsyPost
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy