Child-to-Parent Aggression and Dating Violence: Longitudinal Associations and the Predictive Role of Early Maladaptive Schemas

Violent family relationships exhibit different forms that tend to co-occur and perpetuate over time. Research that leads to a better understanding of the concurrence of adolescent perpetration of child-to-parent violence [CPV] and dating violence [DV] is necessary for the development and improvement of interventions. Thus, this three-year longitudinal study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by exploring the mutual influence of CPV and DV throughout adolescence, as well as the predictive role of potential common and modifiable cognitive risk factors. Participants were 673 high school students (54% girls; mean age 14.33 years, SD = 0.88) from Bizkaia (Spain), who completed self-report measures about CPV and DV perpetration, and the early maladaptive schemas of mistrust, grandiosity, and insufficient self-control at three time points with a one-year interval between them. Path analysis showed that CPV and DV were cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated. Moreover, DV at T2 mediated the longitudinal association between CPV at T1 and T2. Regarding the predictive role of early maladaptive schemas, the mistrust schema predicted an increase of DV perpetration at T2 and T3, whereas the grandiosity and insufficient self-control schemas predicted an increase of CPV at T2. Adolescents’ perpetration of violence towards parents and dating partners tends to co-occur, influencing each other throughout adolescence. Early maladaptive schemas play a relevant role in the explanation of these two forms of family and intimate violence, although intervention and prevention programs should consider those schemas that have shown greater influence on each type of violence.