Individual, family, and social risk factors for child-to-parent violence in non-emancipated young adults

Front Psychol. 2026 May 22;17:1815327. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1815327. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Child-to-parent violence (CPV) has been generally investigated during adolescence, whereas less attention has been paid to young adults who continue to live with their parents. Grounded in an ecological framework, this study aimed to examine how individual, familial, and social risk factors jointly relate to CPV toward mothers and fathers in a non-clinical sample of non-emancipated young adults, thereby extending existing evidence to a developmentally and culturally relevant population.

METHODS: Participants were 1,064 Italian young adults aged 18-25 years who had lived regularly with at least one parent during the previous year. They completed a self-report survey assessing CPV, anger, hostility, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, substance use, direct family victimization, parental disciplinary strategies, perceived social support, and deviant peer affiliation. Spearman correlations and linear regression analyses were conducted separately for CPV toward mothers and fathers.

RESULTS: CPV toward mothers was positively associated with anger, hostility, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation (except for reduced self-awareness), substance use, direct family victimization, deviant peer affiliation, and disciplinary practices, and negatively associated with maternal discipline support and perceived social support. It was also positively associated with female gender. Similarly, CPV toward fathers showed positive associations with anger, hostility, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, substance use, direct family victimization, deviant peer affiliation, and disciplinary practices, and negative associations with paternal discipline support and perceived social support, with no significant association with gender. Across models, family-related variables accounted for the largest proportion of explained variance.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that CPV may persist into young adulthood and is strongly shaped by family dynamics and exposure to violence within the household. From a preventive and clinical perspective, interventions targeting emotional self-regulation and consistent parental disciplinary practices, while strengthening family support, may be particularly relevant during the transition to adulthood.

PMID:42253584 | PMC:PMC13236507 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1815327