THE IMPACT OF VERBAL ABUSE ON SOCIAL ASPECT OF DEVELOPMENT AMONG TEENAGERS

Verbal abuse could arise from any place at any time. It can be at school, on the streets or even in their own house. Verbal abuse is the act on which a person says something unpleasant unto another person that could degrade him/her. Some examples of this are comments that are criticizing, insulting, degrading, and/or threatening to the reciever. Bullying and reviling are other words for verbal abuse. According to Erik Erikson, his theory of psychosocial development deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire it, construct it, and use it. Moreover, Erikson claims the idea that psychosocial development is at the centre of human organism and language is contingent on psychosocial development. It has been suggested that emotional abuse may be the most damaging compared to other forms of child maltreatment because the perpetrator is almost invariably the person responsible for enabling children to fulfil their developmental tasks (Glaser 2002). Prospective studies have shown emotional unavailability, and unresponsive and neglectful caregiving to be associated with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms in early childhood and a range of later forms of dysfunction including delinquency and aggression, suicide and mental illness (Egeland, 2009). People may think that children may easily forget the emotional damage as they grow. Sadly, this attempted solution becomes a problem, installing a source of perpetual humilliation and a self punishment in their mind. If the person is verbally abused from childhood on, he or she may develop psychological disorders that plague them into and even through young adulthood. Iwaniec et al. (2007) also found that the effects of emotional maltreatment are detrimental to the childs development. These acts of maltreatment convey to the child that he or she is worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, or endangered. It includes emotional unavailability, unresponsiveness, and withdrawal of attention. An emotional disturbance can be characterized by poor self image, cognitive delays and difficulties, problems with coping, and difficulty forming meaningful relationships, or connecting with others(Alkema 2009). More often as a result of verbal abuse, the victims does not interact with other people. These individual prefer privacy and isolation to social contacts. All of these can lead to considerable unhappiness. It is true that we may be influenced by traumatic early experiences, yet these does not have to shape our entire adult lives and we must have the capacity to evercome them. A child as young as two can be affected by verbal abuse. Mistreatment during infancy and early childhood negatively affect early brain development and can have a long term effect into their adolescence and adulthood. The experiences we live through infancy and early childhood provide a framework for the expression of childrens intelligence, emotions and personalities. When those experiences are primarily negative, children may build up emotional, behavioral and learning problems that carry on during their lifetime according to (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2007). Our brains are sculpted by our early experiences. Maltreatment is a chisel that shapes a brain to contend with strife, but at the cost of deep, enduring wounds according to (Teicher, 2000 cited in Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2007).

You've no doubt heard the saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Well, it's not true. Name-calling hurts especially when the person doing it is a parent, a teacher, or a coach. Shouting and flashing your anger might hit you as a natural and effective form of discipline but for children it may cause emotional pain that result in long-lasting harm. Among other things, verbal abuse can dishearten your child's self-worth, damage his ability to trust and form relationships, and disfigure academic and social skills according to (Vardigan, 2006). A child experiencing verbal abuse may not be physically or sexually abused. He/She may not also be neglected. Despite the lack of physical aggression or sexual behavior, however, most people probably view this behavior as wrong or at least, less than optimal. Verbal abuse, a form of psychological maltreatment, may be the most destructive and lasting form of maltreatment. For instance, a kid wants to enter on a basketball team, he may hear abusive words spoken by his parents. The childs parent tells that he is too lazy to practice with the team or to dumb to shoot the ball in the net or he is too sensitive that he would just cry all night long because of losing. Another is when girls are having their P.E. classes in football. Little girls tried as hard as they can to kick the ball to the other side but their teacher responds to their efforts by verbally abusing them. A kindergarten teacher when angry with his/her students, he/she begin to use words to compare his/her current students with the past students, leaving the children to feel shame and guilt because they are not as good as those of their teachers past students. Verbal abuse is unacceptable. It is not proper. No one has the right to verbally abuse others. While verbal abuse does not leave noticeable bruises on the childs body, it does leave wounds on the heart and spirit of the child. Those in authority must be extremely cautious as to how they speak to a child in their care. No child deserves to be subjected to verbal abuse. Instead, every child deserves to hear praises and encouragements from the authority figures in their life according to (Deister, 2006). Many people think that child abuse is either physical or sexual maltreatment. But actually, most of the time, a child may suffer by the means of verbal abuse. Little does an abuser know that name calling, rejecting, threatening, blaming, and using sarcasm are examples of verbal child abuse. This may cause different effects to a child. One may be an abuser in the future or may have a low self esteem. Sometimes an adult just kid around with children and say things that doesnt really mean a thing but the adult does not know that the child is already taking it seriously. Letting people know what the consequences of verbal abuse are would be a great help to minimize the case of children being abuse. By this research paper, we can improve our relationship with those children who are verbally abused. Explaining the meaning of verbal abuse and its effects to children may help adults to realize that they are already in the act of child abuse but they are just not aware.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The objective of the study is to identify the effects of verbal abuse to the emotional development of teenagers during childhood. 1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of: a. Age b. Gender 2. What is the effect of verbal abuse among teenagers in terms of: a. Relation to family b. Relation to others/peers c. Relation to God 3. Is there any significant relationship between verbal abuse and the emotional development of teenagers? HYPOTHESIS 1. There is no significant relationship between verbal abuse and emotional intelligence.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of the study will be to:

The Readers Improve public understanding on the roles of the parents in the emotional development of their children. The Nursing Students Assure a competitive advantage in quality of care in nursing practice. The Nursing Practice Promote the best nursing managements on dealing with patients which are verbally abused. The Faculty Members Benefit the instructors in strategic management, when they employ effective learning in their classroom setting particularly in different concepts related to the emotional development of children. The Nursing Education Provide recommendations on how to diminish verbal abuse. The Nursing Practitioners Help the nursing practitioners in in training and informing them in the area of caring for emotionally ill clients, objectives, and strategies. The Patient and Family Educate the client on different coping mechanisms that they could use in case they have been verbally abused. The Future Researchers

Serve as a basis for further study on the different perceptions of future researchers regarding verbal abuse.

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development as articulated by Erik Erikson explain eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges Each stage builds on the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future. However, mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage. Erikson's stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a function of negotiating his or her biological forces and sociocultural forces. Each stage is characterized by a psycho social crisis of these two conflicting forces (as shown in the table below). If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), he or she emerges from the stage with the corresponding virtue. For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame & doubt) with more trust than mistrust, he or she carries the virtue of hope into the remaining life stages.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS The study will be done in random barangays in Bocaue, Bulacan. This will include at least eight barangays and each barangay will have ten teenager respondents. The researchers believed that this number of respondents is enough to assess the validity and reliability of the study. For the each respondent they are asked to accomplish three parts of survey questionnaire composed of the following: first is their demographic data, second is their truthful level of verbal abuse they have experienced; and third is the effect of the experience to their lives.

DEFINITION OF TERMS For better understanding of the study, the following terms are defined according to the context in which they are used. Bullying - a form of aggressive behavior manifested by the use of force or coercion to affect others, particularly when the behavior is habitual and involves an imbalance of power. Childhood - the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. Emotion - a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical (internal) and environmental (external) influences. Emotional development - a way of learning to deal with your emotion in a proper way. Emotional intelligence - the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Teenager - a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood (age of majority), but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the adolescence stage. Verbal abuse - best described as a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existant. Review of related literature Verbal abuse is more than spoken negative words. Verbal abuse can be communicated with or without words in sarcasm, body gestures, tone, ignoring, rolling the eyes, laughing and teasing. The effects of verbal abuse can be experienced physically, behaviorally and emotionally. Without identifying

verbal abuse, addressing it and seeking treatment, victims may experience lifelong scars and symptoms. Two common traits of verbal abusers is the brainwashing of their victims and the need to control them. Victims are brainwashed to believe everything the abuser tells them, and the abuser becomes controlling to the point of secluding the victim from friends and family.

Verbal abuse has unlimited, damaging effects that may be experienced throughout life without treatment. Symptoms of behavioral effects of verbal abuse include the following and may be experienced by all ages: difficulty sleeping, profound and inappropriate sucking, biting, rocking, bed-wetting, exaggerated immature behavior, low self-esteem, excessive moodiness, aggressiveness, overacting, shyness or being withdrawn, sadness and depression, lack of trust in oneself and others, lying, stealing, engaging in sex and/or prostitution, and suicide. Behavioral Symptoms of Children Victimized by Psychological/Emotional Abuse Research finds that exposure to high levels of inter-parental conflict is harmful to children (including covert conflict such as placing the child in the middle of conflicts) resulting in higher levels of behavior problems, poorer academic achievement and higher levels of emotional distress according to (Amato, 2000; Amato & Resac, 1994; Pruett, et al, 2003 and Adamson & parley, 2006) Societal Costs of Abuse Children who suffer emotional abuse often grow into adults who see themselves through the eyes of the abuser carrying a sense of inadequacy and worthlessness that negatively impacts their job performance, marital and social relationships and increases antisocial behaviors according to the (National Council on Child Abuse and Family Violence, 2007). "Verbal abuse in a relationship can be insidious. It is something that leaves no external marks but can be extremely damaging. The victim of verbal abuse within a relations can become isolated and depressed which makes it even more difficult to recognize that they are being abused and to get out of the situation. It can become a cycle that last for years and provides a negative example for the children of the union to emulate. Verbal abuse does not get the publicity that physical abuse gets, but it can have the same devastating effects."

Emotional literacy is an important part of communicating your emotions to others and having the ability to express your emotions appropriately. Becoming an emotionally literate person can greatly improve your life. But what about the types of abuse that are not that obvious? Emotional abuse has devastating effects on children. Some studies have shown that children who suffer from emotional abuse have the worst outcome of all abuse and are better predictors of later problems (Augoustinos, 1987; Briere & Runtz, 1988, 1990; Claussen & Crittenden, 1991; Glauthier, Stollak, Messe & Aronoff, 1996; Kaplan et al.,2002; Simeon, Guralnik, Schmeidler, Sirof & Knutelska, 2006). Emotional abuse appeared to be specifically associated with subsequent low self-evaluation. This is probably due to the childs internalization of parental statements as a basis for self-perception (Briere & Runtz, 2005). This could

lead to other problems in the childs life. Emotionally abused children also showed more psychological difficulties. It was found that subjects who were emotionally abused as children showed higher rates of anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity and dissociation. The researchers estimated that having above average levels of psychological or physical maltreatment increases the likelihood of above average interpersonal sensitivity, dissociation, and/or depression by 45-50% (Briere & Runtz, 1988). In fact, it was shown that emotional abuse had a stronger relationship to long-term psychological functioning than other forms of maltreatment and was a stronger predictor of a wide range of problems (Kaplan et al., 2003). Emotional abuse was the most significant predictor of both depersonalization disorder diagnosis and depersonalization severity (Simeon et al., 2005). Emotional abuse often goes unnoticed because it does not leave any marks. The damage is done on the inside, but the damage that is done is detrimental to the individual and will affect them for the rest of their lives. Almost everyone has heard of, or knows of, someone who has been verbally abused. Perhaps you are involved in a verbally abusive relationship. It is also possible that no one even knows your circumstances. Verbal abuse is a kind of battering which doesn't leave evidence comparable to the bruises of physical battering. Like any area of human action, it begins in the mind and heart. Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks within himself, so he is." What a person thinks in his mind and heart will be reflected in his words and actions. Verbal abuse and physical abuse result from a world view that is clearly not biblical. Verbal abuse is often more difficult to see since there are rarely any visible scars unless physical abuse has taken place. But it is often less visible simply because the abuse may always take place in private. The victim of verbal abuse lives in a gradually more confusing realm. In public, the victim is with one person. While in private, the abuser may become a completely different person (Anderson, 2006). Verbal abuse creates emotional pain and mental anguish. It is a lie told to you or about you. Generally, verbal abuse defines people telling them what they are, what they think, their motives, and so forth. The best way to deal with a verbally abusive relationship, whether you are the target of verbal abuse or the perpetrator, is to find out everything you can about verbally abusive relationships and their dynamics. Usually one person is blaming, accusing, even name calling, and the other is defending and explaining.

There are several categories in which verbal abuse can be categorized: Withholding: This involves a lack of empathy, especially in intimate relationships, such as marriages, where one partner holds back feelings, thoughts, or opinions. Countering: Countering is contradicting the thoughts and opinions of another. Discounting: Discounting is when one person reduces the feelings of another and says, for instance, that their emotions are unjustified. Joking/Teasing: Teasing is common in younger children and teenagers, but is not limited to this age group. Joking is not an issue in itself, but it can be used as ammunition to cut someone down. Blocking/Diverting: This is a complete lack of correspondence, and is often used as a way of avoiding conflict and conflict resolution. Accusing/Blaming: Accusations are used to avert the conversation from the matters at hand.

Judging/Criticizing: The verbal abuser may point out flaws in his or her partner/child/friend in a critical way.( http://www.teenhelp.com/teen-abuse/what-is-verbal-abuse.html, 2012) We can also consider verbal abuse as a trauma. And it can have continuing effects in childrens lives. The data on gender differences in emotional expressiveness indicate that females are more intensely verbally and facially expressive of a wide variety of emotions than are males; and males are more intensively emotionally expressive through actions and behaviors than are females (Brody, 2006). Verbal abuse is a common type of abuse but it is not taken seriously like other types of abuse. Unfortunately, when people dont recognize verbal abuse for what it is, they may try to get the person who is putting them down, giving them orders, or correcting, denouncing, yelling at or ignoring them to understand them. Or, they may try to stop them by giving it back in kind. In other words, they may act out their anger. Patricia Evans(1999) stated that the circumstances under which verbal abuse takes place make a real difference in how to respond to it. In the workplace, for instance, an appropriate response to a very abusive boss might be to prepare a resume or to read the want ads. On the other hand, a child cant very well escape from an abusive parent and so we, the observers and relatives of the child must be alert and ready to speak up for him or her. Keeping a record and letting others know what is going on are often good first steps.

Research Design The research will be conducted as a quantitative research study in which data are collected.

Research Locale The selected barangays within the vicinity of Bocaue, Bulacan that were chosen in this research were the following;

Sampling Design The sampling procedure that was used in this research was a convenience type of non-random sampling. Convenience sampling is a sampling technique where subjects are selected by the researchers because of their convenient, accessibility, and proximity to the researcher. The respondents were chosen from selected barangays in Bocaue, Bulacan

Data-gathering Procedure

The respondents were chosen based on the convenience of the researchers. Each member of the group was tasked to interview teenagers who experienced verbal abused during their childhood stage within the selected barangays in Bocaue, Bulacan. The researchers asked first the permission of the captains of the barangays where the researchers will conduct the interview. After the explanation of the purpose of the study, the survey was conducted. The dissemination of questionnaires was initiated from to .