Parental violence before, during and after COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

It’s not clear if and how social distancing measures to control COVID-19 transmission may result in more occurrences of child and adolescent abuse perpetrated by their parents. Information often comes from indirect estimates and media reports. More evidence is needed from multiple sources, particularly from the potential victims. The aim of this study was to compare the proportion of violence perpetrated on adolescents by their parents before, during and after the COVID-19 lockdown in Portugal. Three different samples with adolescents aged 12–18 years were collected before (n = 1444), during (n = 1427) and after (n = 794) the lockdown and compared to verify variations concerning parental violence behaviors. Higher rates of aggressive parental behavior were found, but results showed that adolescents reported a reduction of psychological, physical, and sexual violence perpetrated by their parents during and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Implications and future research needs are discussed.