Emotional abuse can take many forms including rejecting, isolating, ignoring, corrupting, exploiting, and terrorizing a child. It can cause feelings of depression, withdrawal, low self-esteem, and anxiety in children. Emotional abuse is difficult to identify but studies show it affects many children. Common risk factors for emotional abuse include a history of abuse in the abuser's childhood, substance abuse, mental illness, stress, inappropriate expectations of children, and lack of parenting skills.

1. Emotional abuse “She is a master of disguise,
see that smile it has hidden
sorrow” By Raghib Clitso
Created by : Muila Mongo
Lei Zhang
Xue Lian Li
Melissa Lin
Soo Young Park

2. What is Emotional Abuse
 Verbal attacks or demeaning actions that impact on a
child’s self esteem and self worth

3. Types of Emotional Abuse
 Rejecting: Putting down a child or youth’s worth or
putting down their needs
 Isolating: Keeping a child away from family and friends
 Ignoring: Failing to give any response to or interact with
a child or youth at all
 Corrupting: Encouraging a child or youth to do things
that are illegal or harmful to themselves

4. Types of Emotional Abuse
 Exploiting: Giving a child or youth responsibilities that
are far greater than a child/youth that age can handle
 Terrorizing: Causing a child or youth to be terrified by
the constant use of threats and /or intimidating
behaviour
 Witnessing Family Violence: When children and youth
are exposed to family violence frequently

5. Signs and Symptoms
 Feeling of depression
 Withdrawal from social interaction
 Low self-esteem
 Fearfulness
 Increased anxiety
 Guilty feeling
 Feeling of shame

6. Signs and Symptoms
 Mood changes
 Nervous feeling
 Not trusting others
 Extreme attention seeking
 Avoiding eye-contact
 Telling lies
 Aggressive behavior

7. Impact
 The effect of emotional abuse are often silent. Verbal
and psychological wounds leave a child forever
changed.
 Emotional child abuse attacks a child’s self-concept.
 Emotional abuse is the most difficult form of child
maltreatment to identify and stop.

8. Prevalence emotional Abuse
Canada
Children experience high levels of emotional abuse
According to “The 2003 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect”
 Exposure to domestic violence
is the second most likely of all
cases to be substantiated.
 Emotional harm is associated to
various degrees with all forms of
child maltreatment.
 Emotional maltreatment is the
lease likely forms of child
maltreatment to be investigated
by police.

9. Prevalence of emotional abuse
Globally
The United States National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and
Neglect reports an overall rate of child maltreatment of 1.5 million children
 204,500 of these children are
recorded for emotional abuse
 212,800 of the 1.5 million children
are recorded under the category
of emotional neglect
(Sedlak & Broadhurst, 1996)
http://www.factscourtwatch.org/Emotional-Psychological%20Abuse%20Fact%20Sheet.htm

10. Emotional abuse
Myths Facts
 Relatively few cases are reported,  Emotional abuse is often concealed in secrets
leaving only the most severely and behaviours that are tied to other
traumatized children and youth problems
protected and treated.
 In a Canadian study of 135,000
 The emotional abuse statistics are investigations by child welfare agencies over
depending on the definition a three month period, 60% were emotional
adopted, estimates of the maltreatment and neglect.
prevalence of "psychological
maltreatment“  Child abusers look like anyone else, in fact
they often present an appearance of
 Child molesters look sleazy, respectability, hold jobs, function well in the
unusual or creepy community and have the respect of their
peers. The emotional illness affecting an
abuser is rarely obvious

11. Casual Factors in Childhood
Emotional Abuse
 Abuser’s childhood
 Substance abuse
 Untreated Mental Illness
 Stress
 Inappropriate Expectation
 Absence of parenting skills
http://www.livestrong.com/article/273802-what-are-
the-causes-of-emotional-child-abuse

12. References
 http://www.factscourtwatch.org/Emotional-
Psychological%20Abuse%20Fact%20Sheet.htm
 http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/pdfs/fv-psych-abus-eng.pdf
 http://www.flicker.com
 http://www.child-abuse-effects.com/types-of-emotional-abuse.html
 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/emotional-abuse-signs-and-symptoms.html
 http://www.livestrong.com/article/273802-what-are-the-causes-of-emotional-child-
abuse
 ECEP-237-Class Notes