Emotional child abuse

Definition and statistics

In 2008, approximately 55,196 children were identified as victims of child emotional abuse. This is said to be a low estimate of actual emotional child abuse victims. Emotional child abuse is more difficult to define and identify than other forms of child abuse and is considered the most underreported form of child abuse. http://preventchildabuse.org/resource/preventing-emotional-abuse/.

Most definitions include the actual act of emotional abuse, such as belittling and berating a child, and the negative outcome impacting a child’s self-esteem and emotional well-being. There’s a continuum between corrective, appropriate parenting, suboptimal parenting and psychological maltreatment. Another way emotional abuse differs from other forms of abuse is that emotional abuse is not a single incident but is typified by a climate or pattern of behavior(s) occurring over time (O'Hagan, 1993; McDowell, 1995). The words 'sustained' and 'repetitive' should be part of any definition of emotional abuse (O'Hagan, 1993).

The lack of objective definitions and evidence creates difficulty in reporting the incidence of emotional child abuse and presenting cases in the criminal justice system. An attempt has been made in this section to provide the most specific of definitions and behaviors.

Definitions

The CDC defines emotional abuse as “behaviors that harm a child’s self-worth or emotional well-being. Examples include name calling, shaming, rejection, withholding love, and threatening.https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/understanding-cm-factsheet.pdf

The Mayo Clinic describes emotional child abuse as being harmful to a child’s self-esteem or emotional well-being.  Isolating, ignoring or rejecting a child and more aggressive forms of verbal abuse through belittling or berating a child would be included in promoting harm to a child’s emotional growth. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/child-abuse/symptoms-causes/syc-20370864.

According to Taillieu, et al. (2016) the most prevalent form of emotional maltreatment was emotional neglect only (6.2%), followed by emotional abuse only (4.8%), and then both emotional abuse and neglect (3.1%).

State definitions

The legal definition of emotional child abuse varies among the states. For example, New York State includes emotional abuse in its general definition of maltreatment, while Kentucky, Iowa, and Pennsylvania provide more specific statutory descriptions.

Iowa
In the state of Iowa, emotional child abuse is referred to as mental injury. The following describes mental injury further:

Mental injury" is defined as any mental injury to a child's intellectual or psychological capacity as evidenced by an observable and substantial impairment in the child's ability to function within the child's normal range of performance and behavior as the result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child, if the impairment is diagnosed and confirmed by a licensed physician or qualified mental health professional as defined in Iowa Code section 622.10.

Examples of mental injury may include:

• Ignoring the child and failing to provide necessary stimulation, responsiveness, and validation of the child's worth in normal family routine.
  
• Rejecting the child's value, needs, and request for adult validation and nurturance.
  
• Isolating the child from the family and community; denying the child normal human contact.
  
• Terrorizing the child with continual verbal assaults, creating a climate of fear, hostility, and anxiety, thus preventing the child from gaining feelings of safety and security.
  
• Corrupting the child by encouraging and reinforcing destructive, antisocial behavior until the child is so impaired in socio-emotional development that interaction in normal social environments is not possible.
  
• Verbally assaulting the child with constant, excessive name-calling, harsh threats, and sarcastic put downs that continually "beat down" the child's self-esteem with humiliation.
  
• Over pressuring the child with subtle but consistent pressure to grow up fast and to achieve too early in the areas of academics, physical or motor skills, or social interaction, which leaves the child feeling that he or she is never quite good enough.
  https://dhs.iowa.gov/child-abuse/what-is-child-abuse/mental-injury.

Kentucky

KRS 600.020 http://manuals.sp.chfs.ky.gov/chapter2/04/Pages/224ChildEmotionalAbuseInvestigationsand
EmotionalInjuryEvaluations.aspx

Definitions for KRS Chapters 600 to 645

Emotional abuse can be a repeated pattern of caregiver behavior or an extreme incident that conveys to a child that he or she is worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered or only of value in meeting another’s needs (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, 1995). The emotionally abusive act(s) can be grouped into the categories of spurning, terrorizing, exploiting/corrupting, isolating and denying emotional responsiveness.

Kentucky defines an emotionally abused or emotionally neglected child as one whose health or welfare is harmed or threatened with harm, when his parent, guardian or other person exercising custodial control or supervision inflicts or allows to be inflicted an emotional injury or creates or allows to be created a risk of emotional injury upon the child (KRS 600.020 (1)(a)).

The statutory definition of emotional injury was modified by the 1998 General Assembly. Kentucky now defines an emotional injury as an injury to the mental or psychological capacity or emotional stability of a child as evidenced by a substantial and observableimpairment in the child’s ability to function within a normal range of performance and behavior with due regard to his age, development, culture and environment as testified to by a qualified mental health professional (KRS 600.020 (26)).

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has a general description of child abuse and a specific addition for emotional child abuse. What is described is commonly known as Munchausen Syndrome by proxy.

Fabricating, feigning or intentionally exaggerating or inducing a medical symptom or disease which results in a potentially harmful medical evaluation or treatment to the child through any recent act.
https://www.epaumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Definitions-of-Child-Abuse.pdf

References

O’Hagan, K. (1993). Emotional and Psychological Abuse of Children. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.

McDowell, H. (1995). Emotional child abuse and resiliency: an Aotearoa/New Zealand study. University of Auckland.https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/2201.

Taillieu, T. L., Brownridge, D. A. Sareen, J. & Afifi, T. O. (2016). Childhood emotional maltreatment and mental disorders: Results from a nationally representative adult sample from the United States. Child Abuse & Neglect. 59, 1-12

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