Analysing child-to-parent violence in Chilean adolescents: Prevalence and reasons

Abstract

Child-to-parent violence is a serious social problem that has prompted numerous studies in various countries in the last decade. However, in some countries, such as Chile, there is a lack of research in this field. The objective of the present study was to adapt a specific instrument for assessing child-to-parent violence for use with Chilean adolescents and analyse its psychometric properties, as well as the prevalence of and reasons for such aggressions. A sample of 905 Chilean adolescents (M age = 15.05; SD = 1.48) were assessed using the version for adolescents of the Child-to-Parent Violence Questionnaire (CPV-Q). The results obtained support the four-factor structure of the original version (psychological violence, physical violence, financial violence, and control/domain violence), yielding adequate psychometric properties. High prevalence rates were observed, although no differences were found between boys and girls in terms of type of child-to-parent violence. While physical violence was directed to a greater extent against the father, control/domain violence was directed to a greater extent against the mother. Instrumental-type reasons were more frequent than reactive-type reasons. Statistically significant differences were observed with respect to the gender of the aggressor, with reactive-type reasons being more frequent among girls than among boys. It may be concluded that this instrument is valid for the assessment of child-to-parent violence in Chile and that the high prevalence rates of this phenomenon justify the need to continue studying this type of violence in greater depth.