Breaking the taboo: Let’s talk about child-to-parent violence

Abstract

Lots of kicking, lots of punching, lots of biting, lots of hitting, lots of swearing' (Duncan, Fearon and Woolgar, 2024: 6). That is how a parent in a study published in this issue of Adoption & Fostering describes their experiences of child-to-parent violence. But how many punches, kicks or hurtful words justify the use of this term? Or is it not a question of quantity, but severity? Indeed, there is no universally agreed definition of child-to-parent violence as concluded by a recent scoping review (Rogers and Ashworth, 2024). Definitions vary by the types of adverse behaviours considered, with some only including physical harm or threat (Gallego et al., 2019). Supporting the use of broader definitions, the most commonly cited forms of child-to-parent violence include psychological abuse, financial abuse and exertion of control in addition to physical violence (Rogers and Ashworth, 2024). Additional considerations may include the intent of the instigator to cause harm, number of incidents (Gallego et al., 2019), subjective parental feelings of threat, intimidation or control (Paterson et al., 2002), or developmental age of the young person (i.e., child or adolescent; Selwyn and Meakings, 2016). For the sake of simplicity in this editorial, the term child-to-parent violence refers to children and adolescents alike.The variation in definitions is mirrored by the vast differences in reported prevalence rates, ranging from 0.6 to 60% with more narrow rates for physical violence (0.6 to 21%; Gallego et al., 2019). As part of their annual members' survey, a UK-based adoption charity reported that 65% of adoptive families had experienced child-to-parent violence with 35% listing it within the top three most significant challenges they were facing (Adoption UK, 2019). Consistent with this data, child-to-parent violence was reported by 38% of adoptive parents who characterised their current family situation as very challenging (Selwyn and Meakings, 2016).Sadly, child-to-parent violence may even act as a precursor to adoption disruption. Though rare in the UK, with a prevalence of 3.2 for England and 2.6 for Wales, child-toparent violence was the main reason for adoption disruption in the study by Selwyn and Meakings (2016). Some severe examples included the use of sharp objects such as knives and