by Krista Strmic

Created on: April 23, 2010

Parents have the amazing responsibility of nurturing, teaching and loving their children, training them to be responsible adults. However, some parents tend to misuse their parental authority to the detriment of their children. Below, I have listed characteristics of emotionally abusive parents, the effects on children, and what emotionally abused children can do.

Emotionally abusive parents tend to demonstrate these behaviors:

Constant criticism. Emotionally abusive parents exhibit a tendency of finding fault with their child no matter what the child may or may not do. Comparison to siblings and peers. Emotionally abusive parents instill a sense of insecurity and low-self esteem within their child by comparing their weaknesses to the strengths of their siblings and their peers. Withdrawal and indifference. Emotionally abusive parents display emotional withdrawal and indifference towards the child by projecting their own feelings of inadequacy unto the child, interrupting the child while the child is talking to voice their own opinion over the child, and ignoring the child when the emotionally abusive parents feels like it Misdirected blame. Emotionally abusive parents have a tendency to feel inadequate about themselves and place the blame for their inadequacy unto their child. The child becomes the scapegoat of everything that goes wrong. Division among siblings. Emotionally abusive parents may single out one of their children for emotional abuse while treating other siblings with decency. Their intention is to cause the emotionally abused child to feel isolated because the other siblings will not acknowledge the abusive behavior from the parents and blame the emotionally abused child for their feelings. Isolation away from peer relationships. Emotionally abusive parents isolate their children from socializing with other peers and prefer them to be at home. Once the child recognizes need to be around other peers, the child is then criticized and blamed for wanting other relationships instead of being satisfied with their parents. Accusing and judging. Emotionally abusive parents, as a result from their criticism and misdirected blame, accuse the emotionally abused child for their faults. They expect the child to then defend themselves, proving their innocence so as to avoid further accusations and judgments.

Effects of emotionally abusive parents

Insecurity. Emotionally abusive parents neglected to accept and affirm the children’s identity and consistently

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