Shouting At Teenagers As Bad As Hitting Them

A published American Study finds that verbally punishing 13-14 year old teenagers increases bad behaviour, similar to what would happen if the teenagers are physically punished. The research led by the team at University of Pittsburgh, Pensylvannia said harsh discipline, such as shouting, cursing or insulting, would also aggravate bad behaviour. 

"Teenagers who were disciplined in a harsh verbal manner suffered from increased levels of depressive symptoms, and were more likely to engage in vandalism, or behave in antisocial or aggressive ways" 

In addition to this, the authors of this study found that the effects of harsh verbal discipline is bi-directional; when children were punished because of problems behaviours, the punishment itself caused a repeat of the problem. 

Subjects of the study group: Teenagers from the 'middle class' demographics. Families of subjects were of an 'okay' relationship between parents and kids. Parents whom cared about their kids and did not want them to engage in problem behaviours.