Verbal violence has as many impacts as that which is physical during childhood, according to a study

Bounding words like insults or threats to children can have as many serious and lasting effects on their mental health as body violence reveals a recent English study.

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Researchers have discovered that people who have suffered verbal violence in childhood have 60% more risk of having mental health problems in adulthood, against 50% for bodily violence.

In the results of their research on 20,000 adults in England and Wales published Tuesday in the journal BJM Openresearchers also demonstrate that verbal abuses are increasingly frequent in homes.

Acts of bodily violence have decreased by halves: they went from 20% in people born between 1950 and 1979 to 10% among those born from the year 2000.

“Verbal abuses could cancel the expected benefits of efforts to reduce physical abuse,” warned the D^r Mark Bellis, principal author of the study and professor of public health and behavioral sciences at John Moores University in Liverpool, in an interview with CNN.

According to the researcher, the public should pay more attention to the factors that can influence long -term mental health, since it is “a major and growing problem on a global scale”.

“Parents and people responsible for children, well informed and supported, can create a healthier family framework,” he said.

Watch your words

What adults say can have a real lasting impact on the development of children. But what characterizes a verbal abuse?

This may include behaviors such as blaming, insulting, screaming, criticizing, or threatening a child, email told CNN the D^re Andrea Danese, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at King’s College in London and associate professor at the University of Yale.

She adds that these words are pronounced, most of the time, involuntarily.

Examples such as “you are worth nothing”, “you always make mistakes” or “Gabriel gets there, why not you?” In particular, may have impacts on children who rely on the words of their parents.

“Children get to know themselves and understand the world through the words of the adults around them,” said the D^re Danish.

The way we talk to children can therefore have a powerful effect, as well as in trouble, on their long -term mental health.