En este estudio se evaluó el perfil de los adolescentes que ejercen violencia física y verbal contra sus progenitores. Participaron 1427 adolescentes (728 chicas, 682 chicos) que contestaron numerosas medidas personales y ambientales. Los resultados mostraron que mientras que las agresiones verbales menos severas, como chillar a los progenitores, ocurren en el 65.8% de los casos, las agresiones físicas son mucho menos frecuentes (7.2%). La violencia contra los progenitores se asocia a exposición a la violencia familiar, baja disciplina ejercida por los progenitores, amigos con problemas de conducta, síntomas de depresión, conducta delincuente, consumo de drogas, impulsividad, creencias justificadoras de la violencia y de grandiosidad. Los chicos ejercen más la violencia física mientras que las chicas ejercen más actos de violencia verbal. Por último, las madres sufren más actos de violencia verbal que los padres. Palabras clave: Violencia filio-parental, abuso de padres, conducta delincuente, depresión, consumo, exposición a la violencia, disciplina.

The objective of this study was to develop a questionnaire to assess child‐to‐parent aggression in adolescents and to document the extent of the problem. The questionnaire developed in this study, the Child‐to‐Parent Aggression Questionnaire (CPAQ), includes forms of physical and psychological aggression directed at both the mother and the father. It also includes open questions about the reasons for the aggressive acts. The CPAQ was completed by a sample of 2719 adolescents (age range: 13–18 years old, 51.4% girls). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four‐factor correlated structure (physical aggression against mother, physical aggression against father, psychological aggression against mother, and psychological aggression against father). Psychological and physical aggression against the mother was more frequent than against the father. However, there were no differences with regard to severe forms of aggression. Girls scored significantly higher on all indicators of psychological aggression, including severe psychological aggression. Nevertheless, except for the prevalence of physical aggression against mothers, which was higher in females, there were no significant differences in physical aggression against parents. Finally, the reasons provided by the adolescents for the aggression included both instrumental (e.g., to obtain permission to get home late and to access their computers) and reactive reasons (e.g., anger and self‐defense). These findings highlight the complexity of child‐to‐parent aggression in adolescence.

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Introduction: Child-to-parent physical aggression is a relevant problem. However, in contrast to the extensive literature on other forms of family violence, there are very few studies on this topic. Objective: To study the profile of adolescents who are physically aggressive toward their parents. Aim: Identify the risk factors of child-to-parent aggression. Method: Two samples participated in the study. A sample of 1427 adolescents (51.02% girls) from 10 schools, and a sample from an specialized center for adolescents who commit aggression against their parents. They completed personal and contextual measures (child-to-parent aggression, exposure to violence, discipline by parents, delinquent behavior, substance abuse, justification of violence, narcissism, self-esteem, depression, and social support). Results: The results indicated that 103 adolescents (7.2%) of the community sample had perpetrated some physical aggressive acts toward their parents. Aggressive adolescents scored higher than the rest on delinquent behavior, depression, substance use, impulsivity, justification of violence and grandiosity beliefs, and exposure to violence. Besides, they scored lower on self-esteem, social support, and showed deficits in discipline by fathers and mothers. These adolescents were compared with the sample of adolescents receiving residential attention and the profile was almost identical. The latter scored higher on substance abuse and exposure to family violence. Conclusions: Findings from this study indicate that the prevalence of child-to-parent aggression is high. This type of aggression overlaps with other forms of aggressive behavior and behavior problems. Exposure to family violence and deficits in discipline are important risk factors, which represents an intergenerational transmission of violence.

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