Verbal Abuse
Verbal abuse is a negative statement about a person regarded as the target of abuse or, instead, the reaction of giving no response, which, thereby, humiliates a person defining him or her as non-existent or not worth communicating with. If the abuser does not apologize and shows retract no signs indicating that his or her verbal behavior was unintentional, the situation becomes verbally abusive and may develop into a relationship in which an abuser gets into a habit of using abusive language to undermine the target’s dignity and security. Such a situation can have serious negative consequences for the victim of verbal abuse, through affecting the person’s confidence and self-esteem, which, in their turn, may cause serious behavioral and emotional problems. Therefore, psychologists qualify verbal abuse as a form of emotional abuse or bullying (Primavera and Jackson).
Regardless of the situation in which it takes place, verbal abuse is a form of bullying that has a strong negative impact on the psychological health of the abused and demonstrates the abuser’s aggressive, manipulative or otherwise inappropriate behavior, which disrupts human communication. Verbal abuse is one of the most common forms of abuse; however, all too often, it is not recognized as a very serious type of abuse compared to other known types of it. In some cases, there is no obvious proof of such a type of behavior, as an abuser may take care not to do it in public or with any other persons witnessing it. In other situations, the abuser may have a “clean” personality when communicating with other people while targeting specifically the victim of his or her verbal abuse. In addition, the negative effects of verbal abuse are not as evident as, for example, the use of physical abuse. At the same time, the outcomes of verbal abuse can be no less or, in some cases, even more detrimental to the victim’s health than physical abuse. If a person is often verbally abused from early years, he or she may develop various psychological and cognitive disorders, which will plague him or her throughout adulthood and critically affect the person’s quality of life.
Therefore, verbal abuse should be never tolerated or looked upon as pranks or the lack of good manners. It should be addressed with joint efforts of all those people who see it as an abusive type of behavior that may have harmful outcomes and effects. Verbal abuse is a common enough pattern of behavior in different social settings and situations and schools are some of the most typical places where it occurs. In fact, it is part of many different relationships that take place at school. Verbal abuse targeting a child is often the expression of unequal and unfair relations, with children giving vent to their aggression or, probably, trying to assert their power and control over peers who they see as weaker or inferior to them. These bullies, in their turn, can be the targets of verbal …
