Adolescents' Aggression to Parents: Longitudinal Links With Parents' Physical Aggression

Abstract

Purpose To investigate whether parents’ previous physical aggression (PPA) exhibited during early adolescence is associated with adolescents’ subsequent parent-directed aggression even beyond parents’ concurrent physical aggression (CPA); to investigate whether adolescents’ emotion dysregulation and attitudes condoning child-to-parent aggression moderate associations. Methods Adolescents (N = 93) and their parents participated in a prospective, longitudinal study. Adolescents and parents reported at waves 1–3 on four types of parents’ PPA (mother-to-adolescent, father-to-adolescent, mother-to-father, father-to-mother). Wave 3 assessments also included adolescents’ emotion dysregulation, attitudes condoning aggression, and externalizing behaviors. At waves 4 and 5, adolescents and parents reported on adolescents’ parent-directed physical aggression, property damage, and verbal aggression, and on parents’ CPA Results Parents’ PPA emerged as a significant indicator of adolescents’ parent-directed physical aggression (odds ratio [OR]: 1.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.0–1.55; p = .047), property damage (OR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.1–1.5, p = .002), and verbal aggression (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.15–1.6, p < .001) even controlling for adolescents’ sex, externalizing behaviors, and family income. When controlling for parents’ CPA, previous mother-to-adolescent aggression still predicted adolescents’ parent-directed physical aggression (OR: 5.56, 95% CI: 1.82–17.0, p = .003), and father-to-mother aggression predicted adolescents’ parent-directed verbal aggression (OR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.0–3.3, p = .036). Emotion dysregulation and attitudes condoning aggression did not produce direct or moderated effects. Conclusions Adolescents’ parent-directed aggression deserves greater attention in discourse about lasting, adverse effects of even minor forms of parents’ physical aggression. Future research should investigate parent-directed aggression as an early signal of aggression into adulthood.

Adolescent-to-Parent Violence: Translating Research into Effective Practice

“…Results indicated a strong relationship between parental aggression, both historical and current, and adolescentto-parent violence. Adolescents who reported low levels of exposure to historical parental aggression (aggregated across types) were much less likely to exhibit all types of adolescent-to-parent violence (3.2% physical, 29.0% property damage, 38.7% verbal) relative to those who reported Maintenance medium or high total levels of exposure (22% physical, 74.2% property damage, 77.4% verbal) (Margolin and Baucom 2014). When the types of historical parental aggression (i.e., mother-to-child, father-to-child, mother-to-father, and father-to-mother) were assessed separately, mother-toadolescent aggression predicted adolescent-to-parent physical aggression and property damage and father-to-mother aggression predicted adolescent-to-parent verbal aggression (Margolin and Baucom 2014).…”

“…Studies conducted with specialized samples yield rates at the higher end of the range. Examples of these samples include: clinic-referred youth (12%; Nock and Kazdin 2002), youth from homes with domestic violence (12.6%; McCloskey and Lichter 2003), justice center referred youth (19%; Kratcoski 1985), undergraduate college students (14.5%; Browne and Hamilton 1998), and families recruited for a study on family conflict (22%; Margolin and Baucom 2014). Prevalence rates also depend on the period of time of reported behaviors (9.4% in the last 3 years vs. 5% in the last 1 year; Agnew and Huguley 1989), the reporter (7-8% youth report vs. 11-12% parentreport; Calvete et al 2015a), type of aggression (7-12% physical vs. 91-99% psychological; Calvete et al 2015a; 22% physical, 59% property damage, and 75% verbal; Margolin and Baucom 2014), and severity (2-5% severe vs. 5-13% overall; Browne and Hamilton 1998;Cornell and Gelles 1982;Ibabe and Bentler 2016).…”

“…"; Paulson et al 1990;Peek et al 1985), to multi-item questionnaires (e.g., 20-item Likert scaled survey assessing the various ways that children and their parents resolve conflict; Browne and Hamilton 1998). Behaviors included under an umbrella term of adolescent-to-parent violence also vary, as some researchers include only physically abusive acts (McCloskey and Lichter 2003;Nock and Kazdin 2002), others consider both physical and psychological aggression (Calvete et al Kennair and Mellor (2007) 2015b), and still others include physical violence, verbal aggression, and property damage (Margolin and Baucom 2014). Statistics drawn from national databases highlight the magnitude of adolescent-to-parent violence through total reported incidents.…”

“…Recent longitudinal reports begin to shed light on the development of adolescent-toparent violence in the context of child abuse. One study explored relations between parent and adolescent aggressive behaviors in a nonclinical and non-court-referred sample by gathering mother, father, and adolescent reports of various behaviors over 8 years (i.e., at ages 10, 11, 12, 15, and 18) (Margolin and Baucom 2014). Measures of parental aggression included both historical parent-to-child and parent-to-parent aggression reported retrospectively for the previous 12 months at the first three waves of the study and concurrent parent-to-child and parent-to-parent aggression reported during the last two waves of the study.…”

Teorías sobre el inicio de la violencia filio-parental desde la perspectiva parental: un estudio exploratorio

“…A pesar de que este problema es cada vez más grave y prevalente, probablemente porque también es mayor su visibilización, la VFP no ha suscitado el mismo interés entre los investigadores que otros tipos de conducta violenta en adolescentes, aunque es un hecho cada vez más reconocido y penalizado (Margolin y Baucom, 2014;Routt y Anderson, 2011).…”