Verbal and Physical Abuse Toward Mothers: The Role of Family Configuration,Environment, and Coping Strategies

This paper focuses on parental maltreatment, a rarely documented phenomenon. We prospectively examine factors that can increase the risk of abusive behavior toward mothers. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a stressful family situation, parental divorce, and verbal and physical aggression toward mothers. We use a large Canadian sample of adolescents who have been followed since kindergarten. At age 15, we assessed verbal and physical abuse toward mothers, as reported by both mothers and their adolescents. Multinomial logit modeling revealed that parental divorce was associated with a greater risk of physical aggression directed toward mothers by adolescents. Family environment and parental coping strategies partially mediated that relationship. Mothers who divorced, and remained divorced, were at greater risk of being assaulted by their adolescent children. A positive family environment, reflecting a better parent–child relationship, partially diminished this risk. However, support-seeking behavior on the part of mothers increased the risk of abuse, concurrent with tyrannical strategies often mobilized by abusive children.     

Risk Factor Models for Adolescent Verbal and Physical Aggression Toward Fathers

Using a French-Canadian population-based longitudinal data set, we examine the impact of socioeconomic factors (paternal education and family structure); inherent individual factors (child gender and developmental trajectories of physical aggression from early to later childhood, problematic substance use), family environment (concurrent parent-child involvement, parental problematic substance use), and prospective and concurrent parenting process variables (mean parental supervision at puberty, concurrent punishment practices) as predictors of adolescent-directed aggression against fathers (in the last 6 months). A childhood behavioral pattern characterized by physical aggression showed the highest risk of adolescent-directed verbal and physical aggression toward fathers, regardless of sex. In terms of parental practices, verbal (and not corporal) punishment in the last 6 months significantly predicted aggression toward fathers. A childhood life-course of violence is likely to culminate in aggression toward fathers during adolescence. Beyond this risk, it seems that harsh verbal punishment by parents builds up the odds of child-directed aggression against fathers.