Childhood emotional neglect is a concerning matter, and it has been affecting both children and adults alike for decades. Such a condition arises when the parents or the caregiver of a child is unable to offer necessary emotional support to a child when needed.

Such negligence has both long-term and short-term effects on children. The short or immediate effects can subside over time. But the long-term effects persist (that’s why they are long term effects).

Teachers, parents, and caregivers of a child need to understand the causes and effects of childhood emotional neglect. They should know how it looks from the child’s perspective and find ways to correct it. Please continue reading to learn more about this topic.

What Is Childhood Emotional Neglect?

What Is Childhood Emotional Neglect

Childhood emotional neglect results from the child’s parents’ lack of adequate emotional response. It is not necessarily emotional abuse of a child since it can be done unintentionally. Emotional abuse is an intentional, purposeful act that causes harm to a child. But emotional neglect is intentional and unintentional disregard for a child’s feelings.

Parents and caregivers often fail to notice the emotional needs of the child and respond to them accordingly. Simply put, childhood emotional neglect is also a failure for the parents or caregivers. Such parents provide the necessities and the care the child needs to grow up. However, they just miss out on certain needs of the child or mishandle key areas where the child needs support.

For example, when the child expresses their emotion about certain events they had at school, their parents brush it off as something trivial. Instead, they had to understand the child’s emotions at that moment and help them cope with them.

However, most of the signs of emotional needs children give are often subtle. Although the very severe ones don’t go unnoticed and are attended to, the subtle ones are usually overlooked. This is what causes childhood emotional neglect.

How Does Emotional Neglect Shape Our View Of The World?

Childhood emotional neglect shapes and affects both children and adults alike. However, symptoms vary between children and adults. To understand the extent childhood emotional neglect shapes us, we have to know how it affects both children and adults separately.

How Does Childhood Emotional Neglect Affect Children?

How Does Childhood Emotional Neglect Affect Children

Here are some of the most common effects of such negligence among children –

  • depression
  • anxiety
  • Apathy
  • developmental delays
  • failure to thrive
  • Hyperactivity
  • low self-esteem
  • aggression
  • substance misuse
  • appearing uncaring or indifferent
  • shunning emotional intimacy
  • withdrawing from friends and activities.

How Does Childhood Emotional Neglect Affect Adults?

Here is how emotional neglect in childhood can affect adults later in life.

  • post-traumatic stress disorder
  • emotional unavailability
  • depression
  • shunning intimacy
  • the increasing possibility of eating disorder
  • feeling deeply, personally flawed
  • poor self-discipline
  • feeling empty
  • guilt and shame
  • anger and aggressive behaviors
  • Difficulty trusting other people.
  • Relying on just anyone

When children with emotional neglect during childhood grow up to become parents, they are also likely to emotionally neglect their children. They never learned the importance of their own emotions, and they can’t understand and nurture the emotions of others (most importantly, their children.)

Negligence during childhood causes children to repeat the same issue with their own children when they grow up.

However, understanding their experience and seeking treatment for childhood emotional neglect can help people of any age overcome the effects of the same. These treatments help both in the short term and in the long term.

What Causes Emotional Neglect Among?

Almost similar to the causes of child abuse, the reasons of emotional neglect among children are also hard to understand. Also, most of the negligences usually don’t come from parents being intentionally bad parents. So, what causes parents to neglect the emotional needs of their children? Here are some of the reasons –

  • Depression.
  • Mental health disorders.
  • Substance misuse.
  • Resentment or anger toward their child
  • Lack of personal emotional fulfillment.
  • A history of emotional neglect during childhood.
  • Lack of knowledge about parenting.

Emotional negligence works like a chain reaction. If a person was neglected emotionally as a child, they are supposed to pass on the same emotional feelings as their parents. These parents usually come from families that once neglected (or failed to notice or respond to) their emotional needs.

Due to such experience, these parents also don’t have the parenting skills to understand the emotional needs of their children. Caregivers or parents who lack a satisfying or healthy relationship with other adults also tend to cause emotional neglect to their children.

How To Treat People With Childhood Emotional Neglect? 

Family Therapy

Whether someone has experience negligence during childhood or experiencing them now as a child, have the same treatment method to help them. Here are some of the most common treatment options –

1. Therapy

The most common treatment for childhood emotional neglect is therapy. A therapist or psychologist can help children cope with their emotions. However, if a child suppresses their emotions, it might be hard to identify them in a healthy way.

However, adults suppressing their emotions for years will find it difficult to express them later in life. That is where therapists and psychologists can help regulate, identify, accept, and channel those emotions.

2. Family Therapy

While therapy for children with childhood emotional neglect is important, family therapy works even better. The therapist can help the child and the parents identify, understand, and work on their emotions. Such therapies help the children cope with the problems they are already facing.

If intervened early, correcting certain behaviors that lead to certain consequences may be possible.

3. Parenting Classes

It is important for parents to take classes in parenting, especially when they are struggling to discover the signs of their child’s emotional needs. There are many expertise classes that teach parents to recognize and respond to certain emotional needs of their children.

4. It’s All About Stopping The Cycle

Yes, childhood emotional neglect is not easy to cope with. However, it is not impossible. Treatment and healing are necessary for both the person facing emotional neglect and the parent causing it. It starts with the involvement of the parents and the children, and the problem will subside only when one stops its repeat.

It is suggested that children and grown-up adults with this issue seek professional help to create a better and thriving family environment. I hope the information given in this article was helpful. However, if you need any additional help, please use the comment section for the same.

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Shahnawaz Alam
Shahnawaz is a passionate and professional Content writer. He loves to read, write, draw and share his knowledge in different niches like Technology, Cryptocurrency, Travel,Social Media, Social Media Marketing, and Healthcare.

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