Emotional abuse can seriously damage a child’s health and development. Children who are emotionally abused may also be experiencing other forms of abuse at the same time. The key elements are about persistent maltreatment that has long-term effects. Every parent gets things wrong from time to time, but repeated behaviours, such as those described further down this page are abusive.
Emotional abuse
Emotional harm can be present in all forms of abuse, as well as exist on its own, and can have significant long-term effects on a child’s mental health, education, future expectations and ability to relate to others.
Definition of emotional abuse
“The persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and adverse effects on the child’s emotional development.”

Emotional abuse may involve communicating to children that they are worthless, inadequate or unloved, including not giving them the opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may impose unreasonable expectations on a child which are inappropriate to their age and stage of development.
It may also involve over protection, limiting exploration and learning opportunities and/or chances for normal social interactions. It also includes the child feeling frequently frightened or in danger, being bullied by peers or other children (e.g., child on child abuse) or witnessing the ill treatment of others (e.g. domestic abuse).
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- Training resources for DSLs to use in team meetings
- Reference documents for additional information
- Handout for staff summarising emotional abuse
- Quiz to test staff understanding