Exposure to childhood physical or verbal abuse similarly linked to lower mental well-being in adulthood
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 6, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Exposure to childhood physical or verbal abuse is similarly associated with lower mental well-being during adulthood, according to a study published online Aug. 5 in BMJ Open.
Mark A. Bellis, D.Sc., from Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of combined data from seven cross-sectional general adult population surveys measuring childhood experience of physical and/or verbal abuse and current mental well-being using data for 20,687 residents in England and Wales aged 18 years or older.
The researchers found that exposure to childhood physical abuse or verbal abuse was independently associated with a similar significant increase in the likelihood of low adult mental well-being; compounding increases were seen for exposure to both abuse types (adjusted odds ratios, 1.52, 1.64 and 2.15 for physical, verbal, and both, respectively, versus neither abuse type). Similar associations were seen for individual components of mental well-being. Adjusted prevalence rates of never or rarely having felt close to people in the last two weeks were 7.7, 9.9, 13.6, and 18.2 percent for neither abuse type, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and both abuse types, respectively. There was a significant decrease in the prevalence of child physical abuse (about 20 to 10 percent for those born in 1950-1979 to 2000 or after), while the prevalence of verbal abuse increased (11.9 to nearly 20 percent for those born before 1950 to 2000 or after).
“Verbal abuse may not immediately manifest in ways that catch the attention of bystanders, clinicians, or others in supporting services with a responsibility for safeguarding children,” the authors write. “However, as suggested here, some impacts may be no less harmful or protracted.”
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