Predictors of child-to-parent aggression: A 3-year longitudinal study.

Abstract

Although we rarely hear about it, children sometimes aggress against their parents. This is a difficult topic to study because abused parents and abusive children are both reluctant to admit the occurrence of child-to-parent aggression. There are very few research studies on this topic, and even fewer theoretical explanations of why it occurs. We predicted that exposure to violence in the home (e.g., parents aggressing against each other) and ineffective parenting (i.e., parenting that is overly permissive or lacks warmth) influences cognitive schemas of how children perceive themselves and the world around them (i.e., whether aggression is normal, whether they develop grandiose self-views, and whether they feel disconnected and rejected), which, in turn, predicts child-to-parent aggression. In a 3-year longitudinal study of 591 adolescents and their parents, we found that exposure to violence in Year 1 predicted child-to-parent aggression in Year 3. In addition, parenting characterized by lack of warmth in Year 1 was related to narcissistic and entitled self-views and disconnection and rejection schemas in Year 2, which, in turn, predicted child-to-mother and child-to-father aggression in Year 3. Gender comparisons indicated that narcissism predicted child-to-parent aggression only in boys and that exposure to violence was a stronger predictor of child-to-father violence in boys. This longitudinal study increases our understanding of the understudied but important topic of child-to-parent aggression, and will hopefully stimulate future research.

Multivariate Models of Child-to-Mother Violence and Child-to-Father Violence among Adolescents

“…In any case, these findings do not mean that imposing corporal punishment has less repercussions than the variables that maintain a direct relationship with CPV in both models (impulsivity, substance abuse, and ineffectiveness in applying parental discipline) on the development of CPV. However, some factors may be more involved in violence toward mothers and others toward fathers, or both may operate in different ways (Calvete, Orue, Gámez-Guadix, & Bushman, 2015). Thus, the results are congruent with Cottrell and Monk's (2004) suggestion that CPV is a multicausal problem, because multiple variables at different ecological levels influence its development.…”

“…adolescents' individual and psychological characteristics, sex is one of the most studied variables. However, there is no agreement on the relationship between adolescents' sex differences and CPV (Boxer et al, 2009;Calvete, Orue, Gámez-Guadix, & Bushman, 2015;Ibabe et al, 2014). Substance abuse by adolescents is also one of the most studied individual variables.…”

“…As Bobic (2004) points out, researchers rarely combine various levels of CPV risk factors in an integrated framework, which can potentially blur CPV understanding. There are currently exceptions, with some CPV studies combining individual and family factors (Beckmann, Bergmann, Fischer, & Mößle, 2017;Calvete, Orue, Gámez-Guadix, & Bushman, 2015) and others combing individual and social factors (Contreras & Cano, 2016;Kennedy et al, 2010;Lyons et al, 2015). However, current reviews of CPV indicate that additional research is required, given the complexity of the variables involved in the development of this type of family violence (O'Hara et al, 2017;Simmons, McEwan, Purcell, & Ogloff, 2018).…”

“…Given previous studies' findings that some of the factors involved may differ in the violence directed at the mother or the father (Calvete, Orue, Gámez-Guadix, & Bushman, 2015;Izaguirre & Calvete, 2015), it was considered opportune to test the models separately on mothers and fathers in order to check if the models would be sensitive to parent gender and thus provide more specific information regarding the interventions.…”

Corporal punishment by parents and child-to-parent aggression in Spanish adolescents

“…Although CPA is not a new problem, as indicated in research from the 1980s (Harbin & Madden, 1979;Peek, Fisher, & Kidwell, 1985), there is still scarce empirical evidence available (Aroca-Montolío, Lorenzo-Modelo, & Miró-Pérez, 2014;Hong, Kral, Espelage, & Allen-Meares, 2012;Romero, Melero, Cánovas, & Antolín, 2007;Walsh & Krienert, 2007). However, in recent years, the number of international studies focusing on CPA is increasing (Calvete, Orue, Gámez-Guadix, & Bushman, 2015;Hong et al, 2012), as a result of the considerable interest that CPA is receiving because of the increasing frequency (Coogan, 2011; International News Agency (EFE), 2009) as well as the serious consequences for its victims (Paterson, Luntz, Perlesz, & Cotton, 2002).…”