Yelling, threatening parents harm teens' mental health,

Yelling, threatening parents harm teens' mental health, December 11, 2013 Threatening or screaming at teenagers may put them at higher risk for depression and disruptive behaviors such as rule-breaking, a new study suggests. "The take home point is that the verbal behaviors matter," Annette Mahoney, who worked on the study, said. She's a professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. For the study, which was published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, 239 troubled adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 filled out surveys that asked if they were hit, called names, or subjected to other forms of physical or verbal violence over the past year. Parents of the youths also participated, reporting their behaviors in the same time frame. Fifty-one percent of the adolescents said they'd experienced serious physical or verbal aggression, or both, from one or two parents. Having a mother who both screamed and hit increased kids' risk for mental health problems (such as anxiety, depression, and rule-breaking behaviors) to an even greater extent than having a mother who was aggressive in only one way.For further details pl. log onto: http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-129821-Yelling,-threatening-parents-harm-teens-mental-health