Parents Who Hit and Scream: Interactive Effects of Verbal and Severe Physical Aggression on Clinic-Referred Adolescents' Adjustment

• NCJ Number: 247194
• Journal: Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2014 Pages: 893-901
• Author(s): Michelle LeRoy; Annette Mahoney; Paul Boxer; Rebecca Laken Gullan; Qijuan Fang
• Date Published: May 2014
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study first identified the co-occurrence of parental severe physical aggression and verbal aggression toward a sample of 239 adolescents referred for clinic services, and then it examined the interactive effects of parental severe physical aggression and verbal aggression on adolescent behavioral problems.

Abstract

Fifty-one percent of the sample experienced severe physical aggression and/or high verbal aggression from one or both parents. The study found a pattern of interactive effects of mother-to-adolescent severe physical aggression and verbal aggression that involved adolescent behavioral problems. This finding varied somewhat depending on whether adolescent or mother reports of parental aggression were used and whether the mother or adolescent reported behavioral problems. When severe physical aggression occurred, mother-to-adolescent verbal aggression was positively associated with greater adolescent behavioral problems; whereas, when severe physical aggression did not occur, the link between verbal aggression and behavioral problems was no longer significant. These findings suggest that for clinic-referred adolescents, those with mothers who use a combination of severe physical and verbal aggression may experience greater behavioral problems compared to adolescents with mothers who use only one form of aggression. No interactive effects were found for father-to-adolescent severe physical aggression and verbal aggression on adolescent adjustment; however, several main effects emerged. In three out of four regression equations, high father-to-adolescent verbal aggression as reported by adolescents was consistently linked to adolescents' and mothers' reports of behavioral problems above and beyond the influence of severe physical aggression. This set of findings confirms findings from the only other peer-reviewed study on adolescents (Butaney et al., 2011), indicating that parental verbal aggression contributes to adolescent behavioral problems over and above the effects of parental severe physical aggression within a clinic-referred population of adolescents. Multiple informants (mothers and adolescents) were used to assess parental aggression and adolescent behavioral problems. 5 tables and 33 references