Emotional abuse can take many forms including rejecting, isolating, ignoring, corrupting, exploiting, and terrorizing a child. It can cause feelings of depression, withdrawal, low self-esteem, and anxiety in children. Emotional abuse is difficult to identify but studies show it affects many children. Common risk factors for emotional abuse include a history of abuse in the abuser's childhood, substance abuse, mental illness, stress, inappropriate expectations of children, and lack of parenting skills.