Mental health See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Link Copied! Follow

Cruel words can leave a mark on a child –– and may have as much of an impact as physical abuse, new research has found.

People who experienced physical abuse as a child were at a 50% increased risk of reporting low mental health in adulthood compared with those with no abuse, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Open . Those who experienced verbal abuse had a 60% increase in likelihood of low well-being.

The prevalence of physical abuse in people in England and Wales has halved, from 20% in people born from 1950 to 1979 to 10% in those born in or after 2000, according to the study. Verbal abuse, on the other hand, has increased. Related article Viktoriya S

See Full Page