From emotional maltreatment to psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence

Children between the ages of three and sixteen have an increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders as a result of emotional maltreatment. In younger children, the consequences are mainly seen in their behaviour, and in adolescents more in the form of anxiety and depression. These are the findings of a study conducted by researchers at Leipzig University Hospital in cooperation with other German universities. Emotional maltreatment, also known as psychological violence, is difficult to recognise and record both in research and in practice. That is why researchers at the Faculty of Medicine carried out a highly elaborate study on the psychological effects that abuse, neglect and emotional maltreatment have on children and adolescents. Examples of emotional abuse include when parents subject their children to extreme humiliation, threaten to put them in a home, or blame them for their own psychological distress or suicidal thoughts. Physical violence between parents observed by children also plays a crucial role.