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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.

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.

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.