Parenting styles and child to parent violence in Spanish population

The aims of this study were to examine the prevalence of child-to-parent violence in a Spanish sample and to analyze the relationship between parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and negligent) and child-to-parent violence. Participants in this study were 1343 Spanish university students (74% females; mean age=21.21; SD=4.21) who reported whether they had used any kind of violence against their parents during their early adolescence. The prevalence of child-to-parent verbal abuse ranged from 2.4% to 69%, depending on the type of verbal abuse considered. For the case of physical aggression against one's parents, the rate was around 5%. As far as parenting styles were concerned, the negligent style increased the probability of physical and verbal abuse against parents. The authoritarian parenting style was significantly associated with child-to-parent verbal abuse, but not with physical abuse. Finally, the indulgent parenting style did not increase the probability of child-to-parent violence, and this finding was in line with those from previous studies with Spanish samples.