Emotional abuse is behaviour from a parent or carer that is likely to do serious harm to his or her child's emotional development. Emotional abuse occurs throughout society - it is no respecter of class, race, religion or background.

It can be difficult to tell when emotional abuse is happening to others, and people suffering it may not recognise it for what it is. Emotional abusers often manipulate their target's feelings so they feel somehow to blame for these themselves.

Regular and long-lasting emotional abuse will lead to serious problems with behaviour, study, emotional and mental health. This drastically reduces a young person's ability to grow into a mentally healthy and emotionally well-adjusted adult.

A very sad feature of emotional abuse is that when people who have suffered it in early life one day become parents, they may repeat the pattern and become abusers themselves. This is because abuse is the only parenting model they have had to learn from.

If you or someone you know is suffering emotional abuse, use the resources to get advice and help.