Influence of psychopathology on the perpetration of child-to-parent violence: differences as a function of sex

The aim of the present study was to analyze the role of the psychopathologic symptomatology of participants on the perpetration of child-to-parent violence (CPV), as well as to test the moderator role of the participant sex on the psychopathology. The sample comprised 855 students from middle school, high school and vocational education (399 boys and 456 girls). Age range varies among 1321 years old (M = 16.09; DT = 1.34), being 307 (35.9%) among 13-15, 501 (58.6%) 16-18 and 47 (5.5%) 19-21. Most of them (91%) had Spanish citizenship. Psychopathology was assessed with the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised, whereas CPV perpetration was assessed employing the Child-to-Parent Aggression Questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the most important psychopathologic symptoms were hostility, paranoid ideation and depression, being related higher scores on hostility and paranoid ideation, and lower on depression, with the perpetration of CPV. Interaction analyses showed a moderator role of the participant sex with the interpersonal sensitivity and obsessive-compulsive in the case of CPV to the father, and interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive and paranoid ideation in the case of CPV to the mother. Results confirm the idea that the existence of psychopathologic symptomatology by the minors has an effect on the probability of perpetration CPV, being this effect different depending on the sex of the perpetrator.