Gender and adolescent-to-parent violence: A systematic analysis of typical and atypical cases

Abstract

The gender composition of adolescent-to-parent violence is so often presumed that researchers may use de-gendered terms such as youth, child and parent when they are referring to a son assaulting his mother. Indeed, the growing body of research on adolescent-to-parent violence shows that the most frequent dyad is males (sons) assaulting females (their mothers or stepmothers). By comparison, male parents (fathers or stepfathers)1 are less likely to be targets of abuse: in part, this is because their children may view them as more intimidating and, in part, because adolescent-to-parent violence is more frequent in single-parent households, where adult females are more likely to be sole heads of families (Cottrell and Monk, 2004). Although girls may assault their parents for different reasons than boys, the target of their violence is more often mothers than fathers.