This page will provide a definition of emotional child abuse, as well as additional pages to visit on this site for information about types, signs, effects and statistics of emotional abuse.
What are my credentials to write this page? I am a trained Violence and Abuse Prevention Educator, and I grew up in a home where emotional abuse was considered the only way to raise children.
Where I grew up there was never any consideration given to raising "healthy" children. My parents opted for the "children are to be seen and not heard" style of parenting. Put-downs and name-calling were a several-times-a-day event, meant to toughen us up, show us that as children we were nothing but a burden and that our parents were saints to have had us in the first place.
The term emotional child abuse didn't even exist when I was growing up. But that didn't change the devastating outcome--the effects were severe, ever-present, and followed me into adulthood. Until I got psychiatric help.
Emotional abuse is the cornerstone of all the abuses because emotional abuse is always present during physical child abuse, child neglect, and sexual child abuse, and it is the only abuse that can stand on its own. It does not have to accompany any of the other abuses.
Emotional child abuse is defined as the constant attack of a child or youth by an adult that negatively affects the child or youth's self-worth. It is important to note here the word 'constant'. With emotional abuse, the child/youth receives only negative messages, nothing positive.
NOTE: Information pages on this site were based on material from the Canadian Red Cross RespectED Training Program. Written permission was obtained to use their copyrighted material on this site.