Conceptions about child-to-parents violence in social services: an exploratory study

Abstract

The number of reported adolescent-towards-parents violence cases is increasing significantly in recent years. However, the specialized services to deal with this problem are still scarce, dealing in many cases practitioners of Social Services intervention in these cases. The aim of this study is to analyze the conceptions of these workers about adolescent-towards-parents violence and what are the family characteristics most strongly associated with this type of violence according to their beliefs. Using an inductive qualitative research design was analyzed responses of 43 workers from Social Services, using as a guide the Inductive General Theory phases (frequency thematic analysis, generation and depuration of categories, creation of models and networks of primary and secondary categories). The results indicate that the definitions of the professionals are divided in two types: behavioral and relational, and can be situated along the unidirectional-bidirectional dimension of violence. There is general agreement that there isn’t a single type of family in which violence is more likely although some indicators are related to the increased likelihood of development of abuse from children to parents (permissive parenting styles-overprotective, authoritarian, violent, neglectful and confused, role reversal, lack of parenting skills and economic difficulties).