Child-to-Parent violence in Colombian adolescents: prevalence, reasons and socio-cognitive components

Child-to-parent violence is a peculiar type of family violence that has generated concern about the alarming numbers and serious consequences for victims (parents). Children use psychological, physical, financial CPV and behaviors to control/domain their parents. This study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties and validity of a questionnaire to evaluate this problem. To identify the reasons and differences in the percentages according to sex and to analyze their relationship with the socio-cognitive components. A non-probabilistic intentional sampling method was used; participants were 1556 Colombian adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (M = 14.41 SD = 1.534). Confirmatory factor analysis, calculation of percentages and their differences, as well as mean differences between reasons, and a network relationship analysis were performed. The psychometric properties and validity of the questionnaire were adequate. Psychological violence (24.80–37.20%) and control/domain behaviors (45 − 54.60%) were the types of child-to-parent violence with the highest percentages. Physical violence was the type of violence with the lowest percentage (3.10 − 5.30%). Sons use more instrumental reasons and daughters use more reactive reasons to perform child-to-parent violence behaviors. The strength of the relationship between the socio-cognitive components, types of CPV, and reasons for CPV differed.The child-to-parent violence questionnaire provided strong evidence for assessing this type of violence. The adolescents reported exercising CPV behaviors, which indicates that we are facing a problem present in this sample. The differences in the reasons and their relationship with socio-cognitive variables represent important findings for the prevention and intervention of this problem.