Socio‐cognitive variables involved in the relationship between violence exposure at home and child‐to‐parent violence

Abstract

Introduction:The aim of the current cross-sectional study was to examine the role of socialcognitive processing in the relation between violence exposure at home and child-to-parent violence. Methods: The study included 1,624 adolescents (54.9% girls) aged between 12 and 18 years (M age = 14.7,S D= 1.7 years) from Jaén and Oviedo (Spain) who completed a set of questionnaires about violence exposure, child-to-parent violence and social-cognitive processing. Results: The data revealed that exposure to violence at home is related to dysfunctional components of social-cognitive processing, and that whereas some of these components (anger and aggressive response access) are positively related to child-to-parent violence motivated by reactive reasons, other components (anticipation of positive consequences and justification of violence) are positively related to the instrumental use of the aggression against parents. Conclusions: More prevention work is needed with children exposed to violence at home to reduce the risk of intergenerational transmission of violence. Moreover, treatment programs should include intervention on the way in which adolescents process the information in their interactions with parents. These interventions must be focused on different components of social-cognitive processing, depending on whether these aggressive behaviors are motivated by reactive or instrumental reasons.Child-to-parent violence (CPV) was initially defined several decades ago with the term "Battered Parent Syndrome", which exclusively included physical aggression and verbal/nonverbal threats of physical harm (Harbin & Madden, 1979). The concept was expanded over time and is currently defined as "any act of a child that is intended to cause physical, psychological or financial damage to gain power and control over a parent" (Cottrell, 2001, p. 3). More recently, other authors also indicate that the violent behavior is aimed to obtain power, control and domain over a parent (Molla-Esparza & Aroca-Montolío, 2018, p.17) or to dominate, coerce and control parents (Howard & Rottem, 2008, p. 10), and also that, in CPV cases, it is necessary to exclude isolated acts of violence (Molla-Esparza & Aroca-Montolío, 2018;Pereira et al., 2017) and those violent acts produced under a state of diminished consciousness (e.g., those acts caused by psychological disorders or by abstinence syndrome related to drug abuse) (Pereira et al., 2017). Following Cottrell (2001), psychological violence refers to those behaviours intended to emotionally hurt parents (e.g., intimidating, running away from home, threatening, etc.). Verbal violence is a type of psychological abuse and includes acts such as shouting, challenging, belittling, etc. Physical violence refers to acts such as pushing, spitting, kicking, punching, etc. Finally, financial abuse includes behaviours such as stealing money or parents' belongings, selling parents' possessions, destroying the home or

Analyzing the Relationship Between Child-to-Parent Violence and Perceived Parental Warmth

“…In addition, the literature on general violent behavior has indicated that this variable is specifically linked to reactive violence (Poulin and Boivin, 2000). Our study provides additional evidence on this topic, since anger was positively correlated with CPV toward the father and toward the mother motivated by reactive reasons, which is consistent with the study by Contreras et al (2020). Therefore, although some studies have previously analyzed hostile attribution and anger in the context of CPV, our data further delve into the relationship between these variables and this type of family violence, showing its specific relationship with reactive CPV toward both fathers and mothers.…”

“…These results are confirmed in samples of young people aged 18-25 years, with anger being a predictor of CPV toward both parents (Simmons et al, 2020). Other studies have delved further into this variable, indicating that anger predicts reactive CPV toward both the father and the mother (Contreras et al, 2020).…”

“…These types of abuse can occur at the same time, and in fact, they overlap to a certain extent (Cottrell, 2001), resulting in an escalation of violence from psychological abuse to more severe form of violence such as physical abuse (Cottrell, 2001;Eckstein, 2004). In addition, in line with what has been indicated for other types of violence that manifest in other contexts, different authors have pointed out that CPV can be reactive or instrumental (Calvete et al, 2015;Calvete and Orue, 2016;Contreras et al, 2019Contreras et al, , 2020. Reactive violence is characterized by anger (Poulin and Boivin, 2000) and hostile attributions (Orobio de Castro et al, 2002;Arsenio et al, 2009) and is a response to a previous provocation, real or perceived (Crick and Dodge, 1996).…”

“… Contreras and Cano-Lozano (2015 , 2016) , in their studies of forensic samples, indicated that minors who had committed CPV offenses presented a more hostile perception of their parents and their home in general than other juvenile offenders and non-offenders. The literature on general violent behavior indicates that hostile attribution is linked to reactive violence ( Orobio de Castro et al, 2002 ; Arsenio et al, 2009 ), although in a previous study on CPV, this specific relationship with reactive violence was not found ( Contreras et al, 2020 ), so it is necessary to continue investigating this issue. Regarding emotional variables, adolescents who assault their parents often have emotional difficulties, specifically in controlling ( Beckman et al, 2017 ), identifying, and expressing their emotions ( Martínez-Ferrer et al, 2018 ).…”

Gender differences in child to parent violence risk factors

“…Girls were also more victims of IPV, though it is important to keep in mind that the search for information may already have been skewed by the sex of the person assessed as far as it is a variable designed, initially, for girls. Violence exposure at home affects social cognitive pro-cessing and should be included in CPV prevention and treatment plans (Contreras, León, & Cano-Lozano, 2020).…”