Getting to the core of emotional maltreatment Emotional maltreatment is known to have a damaging impact on children’s mental health, yet it remains extremely difficult to identify and prevent. We spoke to Dr Iris Lavi about her research into the roots of emotional maltreatment, which could hold important implications for the development of effective intervention programmes A stable, emotionally
supportive relationship with their parents is crucial to child development, particularly during their early years. The vast majority of parents are of course committed to supporting their children, yet there are also cases where parents neglect their emotional needs, as Dr Iris Lavi explains. “It may be that parents are depressed, or have other psychological difficulties that prevent them from attending emotionally to their child, and from bonding with them,” she says. Based at the University of Haifa’s Centre for Research and Study of the Family, Dr Lavi is investigating a number of significant questions around the emotional maltreatment of children, building first of all from a clear understanding of what it means. “First of all, emotional maltreatment is a pattern of behaviour. It’s not an isolated occurrence that happens every once in a while, but a pattern of behaviour in the relationship between the child and the parent,” she stresses.
This could mean name-calling or aggressive behaviour from parents towards their own children, which often leads to a cold and alienating atmosphere in the home that affects a child’s confidence and sociability. This in turn can have a serious impact on the mental health of the child. “A child who has been emotionally maltreated may lack confidence and show signs of depression. Typically these children have an inability to form a positive self-image,” explains Dr Lavi. These cases are often difficult to identify however, as there may not be clear physical signs. “Sometimes these children are physically, educationally and medically well cared for,” continues Dr Lavi. “Also, there is a continuum of what is thought to be normative behaviour, both culturally and individually, while a child may have grown familiar with an emotionally abusive environment and have come to think of it as normal. They may not know that it’s not normal to live in such an environment of emotional neglect and abuse.”
Identification and prevention The task of identifying cases of emotional maltreatment is correspondingly complex, and often falls to teachers and social workers. This is a major part of the motivation behind Dr Lavi’s work in analysing the effectiveness of identification, prevention and intervention programmes. “I aim to draw attention to this phenomenon of emotional maltreatment, and to make sure that people know to look for it and how to look for it,” she outlines. This is a relatively neglected area in comparison to physical abuse for example, yet Dr Lavi says it can have a serious long-term impact on children. “We aim to understand how big an impact emotional maltreatment has on families, and to make sure that people know the consequences on the child and their development,” she continues. “I’m currently looking at the emotional processes of parents, trying to understand whether there are certain triggers to emotional maltreatment.” This may be affected by the parents’ own childhoods, their experiences growing up, and
Although child maltreatment is a very complicated, multifactorial social phenomena, we can still look at it at a very
basic psychological process level. If we can change these processes at the micro level, at the individual level, then maybe we can generate a change
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